An edict to reduce cloud spending can have perverse consequences in the hands of stakeholders that don't understand the technical requirements of the business.

An edict to reduce cloud spending can have perverse consequences in the hands of stakeholders that don't understand the technical requirements of the business. One of the primary reasons for using cloud resources is scalability - the ability to increase your workload when there is work to be done, without up-front capital costs. Having a cap on absolute cost while the business expects jaw-dropping growth in the work outputs defies the laws of physics. These companies need to think in terms of improved cost efficiency and reduced waste _relative_ to the system throughput. If you incentivize your employees to reduce absolute cost absolutely, you'll lower throughput and build a culture where scaling up is a fearful event. Scaling up should be seen as a triumph - more work = more revenue - unless your business model is a total failure.