About
Andrei Gosman
Solutions Architect. Enterprise Architect. Cloud Architect.
“Architecture is like selling options.” — Gregor Hohpe
I have worked in IT since 2000. The first ten years were spent writing code in VB.NET, C#, PHP, and JavaScript across desktop, web, and geospatial applications. In 2011 I moved into architecture roles and stayed there. Since 2018 I have worked mostly on cloud, both AWS and Azure, and on the messier problem of moving existing systems into it without breaking what the business depends on.
Most engagements look the same underneath. A business that needs new capabilities faster than IT can safely deliver them, and an application portfolio that predates the current strategy by a decade or more. I design the target architecture, the migration path, and the guardrails, then work with delivery teams until the design survives contact with production. Enterprise architecture in some engagements. Solution architecture in others. Cloud architecture almost always.
I work across sectors on purpose. A pattern that solves a bank’s problem is often the same pattern that solves a shipping company’s, once you strip the domain vocabulary off it. Cross-industry exposure keeps the toolbox current and stops the reflex of applying the last client’s answer to the current client’s question.
Industries
What I do
Cloud solution architecture on AWS and Azure. Enterprise architecture, including target-state design, application portfolio management, and roadmap definition. Cloud migration from on-premises datacentres to public cloud, both lift-and-shift and re-architecture. Hybrid architecture design for organisations that will stay hybrid by choice or by regulation. Integration architecture using SOA, enterprise integration patterns, and messaging. Microservices design for breaking monoliths apart and for greenfield services. Tender documentation and technical evaluation for public sector cloud programmes.
Geospatial background
Before architecture, I spent roughly eight years on geospatial, spread across three separate assignments between 2000 and 2014. It started with two years at a research institute: remote sensing on soil erosion along the Black Sea coastline and satellite image analysis in ERDAS. Then a gap of about seven years on other work. Three more years at a systems integrator, developing GIS applications on the ESRI platform for public sector clients. Finally three years at the largest oil and gas company in South Eastern Europe, first as GIS Expert and then as System Architect, running the GIS platform and designing the geodatabase architecture that supported multi-user editing across business lines. Early 2014 was the transition point out of geospatial into general architecture.
Extensive training: twelve ESRI courses between 2010 and 2013, delivered by ESRI Romania and by SynerGIS Wien (the official ESRI distributor for Austria), each with a final exam. ArcGIS Desktop I, II, and III. Building Geodatabases. Geodatabase Design Concepts. Introduction to ArcGIS Server. Developing ArcGIS Server Applications using Microsoft .NET Framework. Understanding ArcGIS Workflow Manager. ArcGIS Server Enterprise Configuration and Tuning for Oracle. ArcGIS Server Web Administration Using Microsoft .NET. ArcGIS for Server Site Configuration and Administration. System Architecture Design Strategies.
The last one, taken in September 2013, was the pivot. It teaches how to size, deploy, and tune a distributed system under real workloads. The GIS wrapper was incidental. That course, together with TOGAF 9 in the same year, was the point where architecture stopped being adjacent to my work and became the work itself.
Telecom, as a long-standing technical interest
Two courses over the years, both delivered by the Polytechnic Bucharest School Association under ITU auspices.
- GSM, GPRS, UMTS Network Planning and Optimization in 2005.
- 3G/4G Mobile Core Networks Engineering in 2013.
That background became useful much later, when I worked on cloud migration for a very large European telecom operator.
Notable engagements
Migration of 135 servers from on-premises datacentres to AWS for a very large European telecom operator, plus AWS Landing Zone design for its subsidiary in a neighbouring country.
Enterprise architecture for an anti-fraud analytics platform at a European institution. Integration with shared identity and API components. AWS landing zone design and service selection.
System architecture for a national Governmental Cloud on Azure Stack Hub. Tender documentation and evaluation for the platform build and for the migration of state applications onto it.
Certifications and credentials
Cloud. AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate. AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate. AWS Certified Developer – Associate. Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert.
Enterprise architecture. TOGAF 9 Certified Enterprise Architect.
IT service management. ITIL V3 Foundation. ITIL Service Strategy. ITIL Service Design. ITIL Service Operations. ITIL Continual Service Improvement.
Business analysis. Business Analysis, Business Process Modelling, and CBAP Exam Preparation training (Trilex, all IIBA endorsed).
Information management. AIIM ECM Practitioner.
Additional training
Additional training over the years, in adjacent areas: enterprise asset management on IBM Maximo (2009).
Education
Master’s degree, Engineering and Industrial Management. University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest.
Languages
English, full professional proficiency. French, limited proficiency. German, elementary.
Elsewhere
Professional profile on LinkedIn. Occasional code and lab experiments on GitHub.
On the motto
Hohpe’s metaphor borrows from finance. A financial option is the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an asset at a future point, at a known price. Architecture works the same way. A well-designed system does not lock in decisions; it defers them. If the application scales horizontally, the decision about server size stays open at a known cost per unit. If authentication is separated from the rest, changing it later is cheap. Architecture creates value by keeping decisions open at a known future cost. The higher the volatility of the technology environment, the more those options are worth.