API World + CloudX + Dev Innovation Summit 2024

Erik Peterson, CloudZero, CTO & Founder

The cloud-centric world has turned every line of code into a buying decision and highlighted the economic aspects of software design. After first struggling with the ramifications of this, (and a meager $3000.00 budget on my first cloud project in 2009) I discovered how cloud economics presented an opportunity to merge efficiency concepts taken from classic manufacturing with modern software engineering and architecture.

Since that time we have seen an industry wide focus on cloud cost management and new practices like FinOps emerge, but few have explored how to apply cloud economics directly to modern DevOps practices resulting in million dollar lines of code and unprofitable system design that has soured some on cloud computing as a whole. My experience however has been very different. I will share the lessons I've learned over the last 15 years treating cost as a key non-functional requirement during development.

By integrating the Theory of Constraints, Lean Manufacturing, and unit economics, alongside cloud cost efficiency goals and performance as crucial inputs, I will share a strategy that fosters continuous improvement and boosts profitability under current consumption-based cloud pricing models. This approach ensures an economical path from concept to deployment, and ongoing operations, without compromising innovation and time-to-market.