Why does giving engineering control over cloud costs make such a big difference? First, engineers are typically closer to the actual use and deployment of cloud resources. When they build something to run in the cloud, they have a better understanding of how applications and data storage systems use cloud resources. Engineers can quickly identify and fix inefficiencies to ensure that cloud resources are used cost-effectively. Furthermore, engineers who are in the game are more likely to align projects with broader business goals, turning technical decisions into tangible business outcomes.
What do engineers think?
On the other hand, I often get warned about the excessive cloud costs that engineering teams are shouldering. Engineers certainly have the potential to be the good guys of cloud computing, using these resources more cost-effectively, but most engineers are not born that way. Implementing this change requires more than a mandate from above. It requires cross-disciplinary alignment between engineering, finance, and infrastructure teams. These groups need to share a common understanding and integrated strategy for what constitutes “cloud efficiency.”
The first step is to create a single source of truth for all cloud spend data (PaaS and SaaS) to ensure consistency and transparency across departments. This means using finops or a finops-like system that allows you to track and report cloud spend by user, department, use case, profit center, etc.
