Cost optimization

The cost optimization pillar includes the continual process of refinement and improvement of a system over its entire lifecycle. From the initial design of your first proof of concept to the ongoing operation of production workloads, adopting the practices in this whitepaper will enable you to build and operate cost-aware systems that achieve business outcomes and minimize costs, thus allowing your business to maximize its return on investment.

As with the other pillars, there are trade-offs to consider. For example, do you want to optimize for speed to market or for cost?  In some cases, it's best to optimize for speed—going to market quickly, shipping new features, or simply meeting a deadline—rather than investing in upfront cost optimization. Design decisions are sometimes guided by haste as opposed to empirical data, as the temptation always exists to overcompensate just in case rather than spend time benchmarking for the most cost-optimal deployment. This often leads to drastically over-provisioned and under-optimized deployments.