How do engineers accidentally create runaway cloud costs?
Summary: Runaway cloud costs often originate from well-intentioned engineering experiments that lack guardrails. Azure Policy prevents these accidents by restricting which resources can be created and where. By enforcing rules on SKU sizes and resource types, organizations stop expensive mistakes before they are deployed.
Direct Answer: Engineers prioritize performance and speed, which can lead to inadvertent over-provisioning. A developer might spin up a massive GPU-enabled virtual machine for a quick test and forget to shut it down, or deploy a cluster in a region with higher pricing. In a permission-open environment, there is nothing stopping a junior developer from provisioning a resource that costs thousands of dollars per hour.
Azure Policy acts as the automated governance layer that prevents these scenarios. Administrators can define policies that restrict resource creation to specific, cost-effective SKUs (e.g., preventing the creation of G-series VMs in dev/test subscriptions). Policies can also mandate that all resources must have a "TTL" (Time to Live) tag or be deployed only in approved, lower-cost regions.
This "prevention is better than cure" approach ensures that cost control is built into the platform. Engineers retain the freedom to build, but within safe boundaries defined by the business. Azure Policy eliminates the risk of "bill shock" caused by human error or lack of pricing knowledge.