The Architects
Firsthand frugal insights from seasoned cloud architects

Always ask why: A journey from sports tech to food waste
Morten Keldebaek & Robert Christiansen CTO & VP Engineering, Too Good To Go
From a traffic spike that crashed their system during the 2018 World Cup to serving millions of users in 19 countries, Morten and Robert share how questioning everything, embracing incremental progress, and choosing proven technology have built a culture of pragmatic (and frugal) engineering at Too Good To Go—and kept millions of meals out of the trash.
Keeping the stories flowing at Warner Bros. Discovery
Tom Leaman VP of Site Reliability Engineering, Warner Bros. Discovery
With just nine months to launch Max and no room for downtime, Warner Bros. Discovery had to make every architectural decision count. This story follows how they built observability into their systems, made cost visible across engineering, and turned lessons from scaling missteps into a culture of discipline and resilience—so that when the world pressed play, things just worked.
Born from fire and frustration: Watch Duty keeps the tech simple
John Mills & David Merritt CEO & CTO, Watch Duty
Watch Duty's mission to deliver real-time emergency information works backward from a simple truth: during a disaster, people need clear, reliable updates to make life-critical decisions. When your focus is on outcomes, choosing boring technology and simple solutions isn't just pragmatic—it's what enables you to scale with confidence when lives depend on your system.
Cost-aware architectures for viewers like you
Mike Norton VP of Cloud Technologies, PBS
From constant firefighting in their tech operations, PBS faced the challenge of delivering cost-effective services while staying true to their mission. Mike shares how they shifted to fireproofing their systems, re-architecting for resilience, and cultivating a culture of frugality to better serve viewers like you.
A journey towards sustainable development at WeTransfer
Dan Conti Former CTO, WeTransfer
From humble beginnings in a Dutch studio, WeTransfer's rapid growth brought unexpected challenges in cloud scaling and environmental impact. Dan's narrative explores how they revisited past decisions to reduce digital waste, aligning their technological journey with a commitment to sustainability.
The Frugal Architect Podcast
Hosted by Amazon CTO Dr. Werner Vogels, listen to industry innovators as they share strategies for optimizing costs when designing for the cloud
![[S01E05] At Too Good To Go, Practical Engineering Keeps Food Out of the Bin](/images/podcast/episode-5-poster-bw.jpg)
[S01E05] At Too Good To Go, Practical Engineering Keeps Food Out of the Bin
![[S01E04] How Warner Bros. Discovery keeps streaming seamless](/images/podcast/episode-4-poster-bw.jpg)