Title: Discussion 10 — Are Free Tiers and Credits Ever Really Safe?
Course: AIINFRA 101: Applied Infrastructure & Containerization > Section: Week 10 — Cloud Foundations for AI: Providers, IAM & Cost Guardrails

💬 Discussion 10 — Are Free Tiers and Credits Ever Really Safe? (20 pts)

Prompt: This week's lecture made the case that cost alerts often arrive after the charges already happened, because billing data is delayed and alerts are notification-only unless paired with real enforcement. Given that, post your answer to this: should engineering teams and student projects avoid relying on free tiers and cloud credits altogether because the safety net is unreliable — or is there a specific combination of guardrails (IAM restrictions, service quotas, Budget Actions, provider/region choice, etc.) that would make free-tier and credit-based projects genuinely safe? Name at least one concrete guardrail from this week's lecture and explain specifically how it closes the gap that alert-only budgeting leaves open. Draw on your own Lab 10 experience where relevant. Post your initial response (200+ words), then respond to at least two classmates — push back if you think their proposed guardrail combination still has a gap, or build on it with a guardrail they didn't mention.