Cost of the Cloud: When Waste Becomes Existential
RaviShankar B.
Technology Executive | VP Engineering | Entrepreneur | Cloud SaaS | Scalable Platform | Software Development | Innovation | Strategy & Roadmap | Business Vision | Global Teams | Startup | Influencing
Cloud platforms are now the default infrastructure for building and scaling companies. They offer flexibility, speed, and deep technical leverage. But for many businesses, especially startups, there's an increasingly common and expensive surprise: cloud spend that spirals out of control.
A 2024 industry survey found that 78% of organizations believe up to half of their cloud budget is wasted, not spent on experimentation or expansion, but lost to misaligned usage, idle resources, and poor forecasting.
For enterprises, this is a line item. For startups, it’s a threat to survival.
MemSQL: A $900,000 Problem, Solved with $120,000
Take MemSQL, now known as SingleStore. They realized their AWS usage was projecting toward $900,000 over three years. When they compared that to running the same workloads on physical servers, the number came in around $120,000.
They didn’t leave the cloud because of ideology. They left because the math demanded it.
Announced: One Bill, Near Collapse
For the mobile app startup 'Announced', the issue wasn’t ongoing misuse. It was their workloads on the Cloud that led to a $72,000 surprise bill. As a lean, bootstrapped company, that bill wasn’t just frustrating, it was existential.
They didn’t fail to scale. They failed to expect that the platform could scale costs so quickly, without intervention.
The Broader Pattern
These examples seem to reflect a wider reality. Have you noticed this?
Many engineering teams are left guessing at cost implications until it's too late.
Financial planning is often decoupled from infrastructure planning and by the time they converge, the invoice has already landed.
This isn’t just a tooling issue. It’s a structural blind spot in how cloud is adopted and governed.
What Has to Change
Cloud cost shouldn’t be treated as an inevitable mystery.
Spend should be forecasted as carefully as revenue or headcount.
Tools should support enforceable guardrails, not just retroactive alerts.
Infrastructure choices should come with clear, bounded expectations—not surprises.
Misalignment between usage and cost isn’t a rare mistake. It’s built into how most cloud usage is scaled.
A Thought to Close
Cloud cost bloat doesn’t mean the cloud is broken. It means we’ve let complexity grow faster than control.
Very informative and insightful!
Healthcare Executive | Leadership Strategist | COO & Executive Leader l CRAVE Leadership Creator | Driving Operational Excellence & Cultural Transformation | Risk Management I EOS Integrator
2moRaviS. Bulusu The insights shared in this article highlight a critical issue that many organizations face today. As we navigate the complexities of cloud infrastructure, aligning financial planning with operational strategies is essential. By fostering a culture of awareness and proactive management, we can transform these challenges into opportunities for growth and resilience. Let’s lead with trust and inspire with empathy as we tackle these existential threats together!
CXO | Transformative Executive Leader Specialized in Scaling Global Businesses | Corporate Alchemist | P&L Management | Harvard MBA | Lean Six Sigma Black Belt | Industry 4.0 | deutschsprachig
2moRavi, thanks for sharing. Your insights and conclusions are always stimulating, and invariably lead the reader to reevaluate one’s existing viewpoints and preconceptions. As you said, financial planning is often decoupled from infrastructure planning and by the time they converge, the invoice has already landed.