Name a technique to reduce cloud deployment costs without sacrificing availability.

• A. Over-provision resources and avoid autoscale
• B. Right-size resources and implement autoscaling and proper shutdown schedules
• C. Use only manual scaling
• D. Disable autoscaling

Answer: (B)

Balancing cloud costs with high availability comes from sizing resources to actual demand and using automation to adjust capacity as needed. Right-sizing means selecting instance types and quantities that fit the workload so you don’t pay for unused capacity. Autoscaling automatically adds or removes instances based on current load, so performance stays steady during spikes and you don’t keep paying for idle capacity during lulls. Scheduled shutdowns let you pause non-critical workloads during predictable off-peak periods, lowering costs while keeping critical services ready to scale back up when demand returns. Together, these practices maintain availability because the system can respond to changing demand without over-provisioning.

Over-provisioning and avoiding autoscale wastes money and reduces responsiveness. Relying on manual scaling isn’t responsive to sudden load changes, risking performance issues. Disabling autoscaling removes the ability to adapt to demand, which can lead to both higher costs and potential outages during traffic spikes.