Lesson four: Learn to be a ‘Frugal Architect’.

It’s the bottom line, stupid! He might not have said it in quite such stark terms, but it was certainly the message Amazon’s larger-than-life chief technology officer Dr Werner Vogels wanted to get across in his keynote speech on Thursday morning ‘Because why do we actually use AWS?’, he asked the audience. Whether it’s improving efficiency, scaling up quickly, or lowering latency, he said, ultimately it all comes down to one thing: making money.

The ‘Frugal Architect’ sets out his manifesto… Dr Vogels warned technologists had lost the art of architecting for cost. Cost should be the first consideration at every step of design, he said, because ‘constraints breed creativity’. And over the next hour, Dr Vogels – who as well as pioneering Amazon’s tech for the past two decades is also an award-winning thinker – set out to build a cost-optimal tech business.

He laid out three simple rules: 1. Follow the money. Keep cost in mind at all times, and make sure your technology and business decisions are always in harmony. 2. Watch your outgoings closely, and make sure you understand them. 3… Be cutthroat – decide what functions are important and get rid of the rest.

Why does this matter to VeUP customers? It’s reassuring to know that the man behind Amazon’s technology is as invested in both making and saving you money as much as you are. And so are we here at VeUP, an Advanced Tier Services Partner of AWS. Following the keynote, our chairman and co-founder, Alexander Dick, agreed with the sentiment, adding: ‘Cost optimisation is close to our hearts.. Making sure your money lasts is really important.’