Cloud platforms make scaling easy, but costs can spiral without intentional design. Cost-aware architectures treat efficiency as a first-class requirement alongside performance and reliability.

Visibility and Allocation
Tagging standards and showback reports attribute spend to owners. Unit economics link technical choices to customer value.

Optimization Patterns
Rightsizing, storage tiering, and workload scheduling reduce waste. Caching and efficient data transfer lower recurring costs.

Cultural Practices
Regular reviews embed cost awareness into everyday engineering decisions.