Every cloud-native project starts with a great idea — and quickly descends into a familiar struggle. Cost constraints collide with business requirements, functionality drives architectural complexity, and every decision seems to break something else. For solution architects working in Azure, this tension isn’t accidental — it’s fundamental.

In this session, we explore why Cost, Requirements, and Functionality are inseparable pillars in Azure architecture, and why attempting to optimize all three simultaneously is a recipe for frustration. Using real-world Azure scenarios, we’ll examine how architectural choices around security, scalability, resilience, and platform services directly impact cost and delivery outcomes.

Rather than presenting “perfect” architectures, this session focuses on intentional trade-offs. You’ll see how the same business idea can result in very different Azure architectures depending on which pillar dominates — and why all of them can be valid. Attendees will leave with practical guidance for navigating these competing forces, communicating trade-offs to stakeholders, and designing Azure solutions that can evolve as priorities change.