The most expensive thing in your cloud
is the box that's waiting.

Provisioned, billed, idle. Ready to serve a request that never shows.

98%of that uptime, nobody knocked

It's the maintenance hut on the ridge.

Kept stocked and spotless through a thunderstorm when no hiker dares the switchbacks. True readiness is knowing when to pack it out.

Prod web tier — 24/7, p95 under 60s$1,840/mo
Batch workers — 4 hrs nightly$212/mo
Throwaway demo box "just in case"$190/mo
Rightsize or release. The savings beat the benchmark — and nothing breaks.