Now that we have an approach for collecting, tracking, and viewing costs in a cloud environment, how do we optimize these costs? There are two distinct camps on what is meant by optimizing costs. One camp hears minimize (to reduce to the smallest possible amount) while the other hears maximize (to make the best use of). Both camps are technically correct, since no IT organization has a bottomless budget (hence you minimize to constrain costs within your budget). However, today's leading organizations have changed the way they look at IT outlays. They seek to maximize business benefits and link technology investments to business outcomes. This is what is meant by maximizing/optimizing our technology costs. The first question requires technology decisions. The second requires technical experimentation, patience, and business acumen.