Learn English – “Is X and Y the exact same thing?” or “Are X and Y the exact same things?”

OK, let's get this answered...

First of all, let's put aside the issue of whether you can use "architect" as a verb. In this job title, "architect" is definitely being used as a noun.

In contrast, "solution" or "solutions" is a noun modifier or noun adjunct. A noun adjunct is a noun being used to modify the sense of another noun and it fills a similar role to that of an adjective. You can see this by comparing some similar constructs:

• residential architect
• landscape architect
• software architect
• solution architect
• solutions architect

The first two job titles refer to specialties within traditional architecture, the first using the adjective "residential" and the second the noun adjunct "landscape". Items 3-5 are all IT job titles and all use noun adjuncts. Because "software" is an uncountable, mass noun, there's no option to choose between singular and plural forms. But when we use count nouns as adjuncts, we have to decide whether to use the singular or plural form.

The standard grammatical approach used to be to use the singular form as a noun adjunct unless this would change the meaning. So we have "market trader" and "stock trader" but "futures trader" and "arms trader". Why? Because the latter pair do not make their money from selling the future or upper extremities.

With the profusion of new and co-opted vocabulary that the IT industry has created there are many more occasions now when people are using previously countable nouns (e.g. "solution", "operation") in plural form for a generic field of endeavor. Thus, the practice of keeping systems running becomes "operations" and we don't really think about each individual singular "operation" that makes this up.

For this reason it's natural to use the plural version of the noun when forming "operations manager".

The concept of "solutions" is part way along this scale. We do talk about a specific "solution" in the sense of a product or configuration. But this type of "solution" isn't very countable -- you could imagine choosing among three solutions, but you probably wouldn't say you designed 171 solutions in May. In many cases, IT "solutions" are not discrete items but just the general concept of an implemented and integrated set of products.

So, when it comes to picking a job title, people have trouble deciding which of their gut instincts to trust and you end up with both solutions architects and solution architects.

My own feeling is that solutions architect is the more common. My experience is that almost no-one else cares which form I use.

Source: I am a solution(s) architect and a former copy editor

When you use the word zero as a number, the word it quantifies should always, I repeat, always be plural!

Example #1:

Ice melts at zero degrees Celsius.

Example #2:

— How many friends do you have in this town?
— After that story went public, I have literally zero friends!

You may ask why is that true? Well, consider this. You can have three cars, you can have two cars and you can have just one car. But how many cars do you have when you don't have any? Notice, I said how many cars, not how many car. So, naturally, your response should be I have zero cars.

The determiner many always implies plurality unless you have only one of something. If it was indeed possible to say zero car, then your response would have been either I have a zero car or I have zero car. Well, the first one sounds more like you're talking abut a type of car, not how many cars you've got. And the second one sounds like a name or title (the name of a game or a movie title, perhaps). Do you see the confusion?

The same holds true when talking about temperatures. The word degree should always be plural unless it's exactly 1 degree Fahrenheit or Celsius. Even when you're dealing with a fraction of a degree, it's still plural.

Example:

The outdoor temperature is 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit.

PS: The question how many cars do you have? would be more likely answered like this:

— How many cars do you have?
— I don't have a car. / I've got none.

The only time you ever say I've got zero cars is when you want to emphasize the fact that you don't have any cars at all. So, it's just a more emphatic way to stress that.

Here's some more information on the subject you might consider reading: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/38293/why-is-zero-plural

In summary, 1 or -1 degree Celsius should grammatically always be singular, but in everyday speech a lot of people might say 1 or -1 degrees. Here's the rule: if exactly one of something—singular (regardless of whether the quantity is negative or positive). Everything else—plural (regardless of whether the quantity is negative or positive).