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We're going to need default hard budget caps on pretty much everything

611 points · 302 comments · elffjs

  1. joshdavham · · focus · HN ↗
    It’s incredible that in 2026, AWS and GCP are only just now introducing this. It’s possibly one of the most obviously needed features for a cloud provider.

    Also, does anyone know why it’s taken this long? I suspect it’s a technical reason. While one could be cynical, I doubt it’s an intentional business/product decision. Hard spending caps are both excellent product differentiators and could possibly save these providers money as they don’t have to forgive their users when they accidentally over-use a service.

    1. dhosek · · focus · HN ↗
      I had a $.20/month recurring charge from AWS that I could only remove¹ by completely deleting my AWS account. That was enough to get me to give up on AWS for personal projects.

      ⸻

      1. The key word was “I.” Maybe someone more skilled at navigating AWS’s menu structure than I could would have done it quickly and easily, but even though I knew what it was for, turning it off and not getting billed for it turned out to be a huge challenge. Thankfully it was only $.20, but if I were using the service for something that generated actual bills, that $.20 (and possibly more) would end up quietly siphoning money out of my pocket into Amazon’s).

      1. gentlerain · · focus · HN ↗
        I have been using AWS more recently but something I can't believe is how the whole UI/UX revolution of the last 10 or so years escaped them.

        Starting from the login point, who asks to login to root or IAM user account in 2026?

        Or having to change regions from a dropdown to see resources you own in those regions?

        It's really in top 5 messy UI i have ever seen.

        1. NBJack · · focus · HN ↗
          And it changes constantly "for the better".

          Remember when they decided the best UI experience was to give everything a vague abstract collection of shapes? Early 2010s or so. Couldn't tell a damn thing apart.

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