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

608 points · 302 comments · elffjs

  1. brap · · focus · HN ↗
    When I first started working with cloud providers it was shocking to discover this feature doesn’t exist, basically anywhere.

    It’s such a basic thing, not having it has to be deliberate to make you accidentally spend more than you’d like.

    1. Terretta · · focus · HN ↗
      Mistaken view.

      I was a member of AWS customer advisory board for years. Two dozen of largest enterprises and unicorns and so on. Nobody wanted the billing department "inline" of systems controls.

      AWS provides all the controls you need to flip the switch yourself, and provides the CDK / TF / etc. patterns for it. Plenty GitHub projects to host your own light switch service.

      Don't relinquish the switch.

      1. callmeal · · focus · HN ↗
        > Two dozen of largest enterprises and unicorns and so on. Nobody wanted the billing department "inline" of systems controls.

        And of course, two dozen enterprises trump hundreds if not thousands of other small businesses right? Did AWS think of, oh I don't know, a 'feature flag' or somesuch thing that enterprises and unicorns are so fond of to provide this feature to those who don't have VC money to flush?

        1. Terretta · · focus · HN ↗
          Again, they give you the tools for this. You can understand your usage by API, you can set threshold actions on it, you can switch things on and off, and applyable templates exist, all of which are under your control and "out of band" from the systems delivering traffic or compute to your paying customers.
          1. dwedge · · focus · HN ↗
            Using these tools can you switch everything off immediately (or at least within a minute) of total billing going over $X? Because if not, you're being disingenuous
            1. dcminter · · focus · HN ↗
              Not to mention that one of the things people want a hard limit for is to limit the financial blast radius of misconfiguration. Saying "oh sure, you can cobble that together yourself" is super missing the point.
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