You are asked to cut cloud spend by thirty percent without hurting reliability. Walk me through the case you would bring.
Agree whether thirty percent means run-rate or this year's cloud spend, absolute or per unit. Then attribute the bill, phase the cuts as quick wins, structural fixes and commitments last, and guard every change with SLO burn and a protected list. Show both the run-rate and the in-year figure.
Answer
Short answer
Agree what "thirty percent" means first. It could be thirty percent off the run-rate by year end, or off this year's cloud spend, and it could be absolute or per unit of business volume. Those are very different targets.
Then attribute the bill, phase the work into quick wins, structural fixes and only then commitment discounts, and guard every change with SLO burn as a stop condition. In the worked case below, thirty percent of run-rate is reachable, but only about half of it lands inside the year.
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Likely follow-ups
- Traffic is forecast to grow twenty percent next year. How does that change what you commit to the CFO?
- Halfway through, the commitment discounts look like the only way to reach the target. What do you tell finance about the flexibility you are giving up?
- A team's SLO starts burning after a right-sizing change. Who decides whether to roll it back, and how fast?
- How do you stop the bill creeping back up in the year after the programme ends?
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