Either way, one thing is certain: Companies are getting serious about cloud spend. And while Wall Street analysts hope the excitement over generative AI will drive customers to spend more money on cloud services next year, it's clear that optimization won't go away. "Cloud spend got big enough at most of the Fortune 500s that it's actually material now," Storment said. Cloud cost-cutting servicesTo save money on cloud services, customers often must first spend money. Customers aren't spending much on generative AI yetEven though "generative AI is the new sexy thing that everyone is exploring," the technology didn't come up in many conversations about budget, Lowell said.

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Persons: Adam Selipsky, Werner Vogels, Sid Nag, Gartner, Nag, wasn't, Dave Linthicum, —, Storment, Craig Lowell, Lowell, Linthicum, they're, Bernstein, Mark Schilsky, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Amazon Web, Business, AWS, Wall, Microsoft, Google, Deloitte, FinOps Foundation, Fortune, Venetian Convention, Expo, Companies Locations: Las Vegas, DoiT, ethomas@insider.com