Because cloud usage is so dynamic, predicting costs is not a simple task. It’s not uncommon for initial cloud costs to come in higher than expected, resulting in a bit of sticker shock. If you do have a budget in mind, be aware that you might not hit that number right away — but you can still get there later. Optimization and fine-tuning should always be part of the plan — just not the first part. The first challenge of cloud adoption is to make it work. Next, make it work well. Once your application is performing reliably and securely then you can start looking for ways to optimize costs.