Summary 

In episode 4 of the Cache-it podcast, Khawaja invites Erik Peterson, Founder, Director, and CTO/CISO at CloudZero, to discuss the concept of “million dollar lines of code”. The term refers to a single line of code that, when optimized, can lead to significant cost savings in cloud infrastructure. Erik emphasizes the importance of cost optimization in cloud engineering and the need for engineers to consider cost alongside performance and functionality. 

The conversation touches on how engineers often treat cloud resources as abundant due to the ease of provisioning, leading to wasteful spending. Erik suggests that engineers need to flip their mindset from maximizing resource consumption to optimize resource usage. 

Erik runs through “million dollar lines of code” examples, such as accidentally enabling debug logging that generates excessive data, and altering data access patterns to reduce the size of API calls and lowers costs. He also highlights the importance of aligning cost optimization with a focus on delivering an excellent user experience. 

Overall, the conversation dives into the intersection of engineering decisions, cloud costs, and user experience, defining how small code changes can have a profound impact on cost savings while maintaining or even improving system performance. 

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About Erik Peterson

Erik Peterson is the Founder and CTO of CloudZero and a pioneer in engineering-led cloud cost optimization. He has been building in the cloud since its arrival and has over two decades of software startup experience, with a passion for cost-efficient engineering and excellent margins. Erik is also a believer in Serverless computing, an AWS Ambassador, and a recovering application security survivor. He is an active contributor to the FinOps and Serverless communities and frequently shares his thoughts on cloud economics, DevOps, and security.

Khawaja Shams

Author

Khawaja is the CEO and Co-Founder of Momento. He is passionate about investing in people, setting a bold vision, and team execution. Khawaja has experience at AWS where he owned DynamoDB, and subsequently owned product and engineering for all 7 of the AWS Media Services. He was awarded the prestigious NASA Early Career Medal for his contributions to the Mars Rovers.