AWS costs are insane for every project.

> Upper management would hear nothing of it

No one knows how to plan ahead any more. It's all "agile" and hardware (and budgeting for it) isnt something most in management are capable of doing any more.

There is also then justifying the CapEx on a 5 year amortization schedule... the thing is even if you borrow that money at current rate (7 percent) you can still come out far ahead of AWS... It's a lot of math, and a lot of accounting (and the accountability that comes with it).

Your average CTO just doesn't have these skills.