Where I work, we have Architects but they often play a supporting/consulting role and the teams are expected to learn and implement most of the things listed in this article. They will push you to make good decisions, and will want to vet your designs, but they aren't dictating this stuff from on high (unless of course you're making really poor choices). It's been great because no matter who you are or what role you play on the team (I'm primarily a FE dev) you can learn as much of this stuff as you want. I have to imagine its the same at other companies, so anyway, what I'm saying is you can get a ton of experience in all of this kind of stuff without being an actual Architect at some places (we're a large company). The flip side of that coin here is that it's VERY difficult to get the actual title of Architect; it's a very limited role and it takes a lot more than just systems knowledge to get there (i.e. politics). A lot of the people I've worked with who are Senior level could probably easily transition into a systems architect position at other companies. I'm not sure if this is the best way to get there if that's what you're interested in though, just giving you some food for thought. I don't know how you identify companies where you can get this kind of experience, but if you're interviewing you should ask about "you build it you run it" or stuff like that to see how they manage their infrastructure, that might give you a hint.
