Uploaded October 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

---

In late 2017, the Financial Times spoke with AWS to discuss their solution for cost optimization.

This is a tricky area because builders are usually focused on making sure their solution works first, then they look to performance. Cost is usually way, way down the list. If it even makes the list.

The solution the Financial Times came up with is quite clever and delivered results quickly for them.

Now, a few years later, I react to that video and see what's stood the test of time, what could be done simpler given today's technology, and generally critique the design against the AWS Well-Architected Framework in a mini AWS Well-Architected Review.

The original video: youtu.be/beN1m9AOsQ0

More on the AWS Well-Architected Framework is at aws.amazon.com/architecture/well-architected

Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/marknca

Read my AWS Hero bio at aws.amazon.com/developer/community/heroes/mark-nunnikhoven

Learn more about the AWS Well-Architected Framework in my course on A Cloud Guru at markn.ca/courses/#mastering-the-well-architected-framework

Index:
- [00:00] Intro
- [00:41] Financial Times intro
- [01:04] Problem statement
- [02:19] Feedback loop
- [03:20] Simple workflow
- [05:42] Serverless solution
- [06:30] Specific goals
- [07:20] Incentives
- [08:50] Staying current
- [09:40] Can we improve?