> you need fewer operators and less expertise in datacenter operations Because you are paying someone else for them. This is considered rational because those

> you need fewer operators and less expertise in datacenter operations Because you are paying someone else for them. This is considered rational because those operators are presumably more productive in a pool of people using similar skills to support many customers rather than just one. It is similar to hiring a cleaning service rather than employing individual cleaners in a department of cleaning because cleaning things is not a core competency of business. It might be less irrational if some amount of compute is part of the core competency of the business. Since "software is eating the world," compute is a core competency of all businesses except for the ones that don't realize it yet.