Why does giving engineering control over cloud costs make such a difference? For one, engineers are typically closer to the actual usage and deployment of cloud resources. When they build something to run on the cloud, they are more aware of how applications and data storage systems use cloud resources. Engineers can quickly identify and rectify inefficiencies, ensuring that cloud resources are used cost-effectively. Moreover, engineers with skin in the game are more likely to align their projects with broader business goals, translating technical decisions into tangible business outcomes.
What do the engineers think?
On the other hand, I’m often alerted to excessive cloud costs incurred by, you guessed it, the engineering teams. Engineers definitely have the potential to be the good guys of cloud computing who use these resources more cost-effectively, but most engineers are not born that way. Implementing this shift requires more than just a mandate from above; it requires interdisciplinary alignment among engineering, finance, and infrastructure teams. These groups must share a common understanding and a unified strategy around what constitutes “cloud efficiency.”
The first step is to create a single source of truth for all cloud cost data (PaaS and SaaS), to ensure consistency and transparency across departments. This means employing finops or finops-like systems that can track and report on cloud costs by user, department, use case, profit center, etc.