Software gets heavier unless someone pays attention. Features stay because they once mattered. Services stay because nobody wants to ask who owns them. Bills rise because yesterday's shape becomes today's habit.
Lean by decision, not by accident
Fewer services, fewer dependencies, fewer moving parts to feed and secure. Infrastructure sized to what the system actually does, and a bill that tracks value rather than habit.
Then the part many organizations skip: retirement. Features, data and whole systems that no longer earn their keep get removed deliberately, as real work with real credit. Nothing creates drag quite like the thing nobody dares to delete.
What it buys you
We measure what things cost to run, not just to build. The cleanest architecture we ship is usually the one with the most crossed out, and it moves faster precisely because of what it refuses to carry.