In the realm of digital commerce, the cloud transcends mere infrastructure; it serves as the foundation for growth, innovation, and customer experience. However, as usage scales up, the crucial challenge lies not in the platform’s ability to function in the cloud but in whether the associated costs remain sustainable as traffic, transactions, and business demands escalate.
Myntra’s recent engineering developments shed light on this complex issue. Ashutosh Sharma, the Director of Engineering at Myntra, noted that the company’s revenue has seen a consistent annual growth of approximately 15%, with around 70 million monthly active users. Concurrently, the traffic handled by the cloud has steadily risen. Notably, cloud expenditures over the past four years have remained relatively stable, with only a slight increase in the last year. This achievement, according to Sharma, was not the result of a one-off cost-cutting initiative but stemmed from adopting cloud cost management as a core engineering practice rather than merely a financial review.
A significant cultural transformation within Myntra appears to have facilitated this progress. Sharma highlighted the establishment of a FinOps practice that integrates engineering, finance, and business teams. Additionally, it was imperative to grant budgetary authority closer to engineering decisions, ensuring that each technical choice carried a financial implication.
This attention to detail is crucial, as cloud overspending often originates from seemingly minor decisions—such as overprovisioning, inefficient workloads, or unclear scaling visibility. A key aspect of Myntra’s strategy was transitioning from virtual machines to a fully Kubernetes-based containerized environment, a shift Sharma noted has resulted in the company now operating entirely on this technology. Importantly, the focus is not on achieving technological perfection but rather on gaining operational control. For a rapidly expanding platform, cloud efficiency must be deeply embedded in system design and operation.
Myntra’s narrative becomes even more compelling as the company reevaluates its approach to cloud use, transitioning from a focus solely on cost reduction to a broader agenda of value creation. This represents a more sophisticated understanding of cloud technology, particularly for a consumer platform where the primary consideration is not just cost savings but enhancements in service delivery.
This value is evident in various customer-facing systems. Innovations such as personalized recommendations, multimodal search, size-and-fit advice, conversational shopping via Maya, swift commerce planning with M-Now, and virtual try-ons exemplify this expansive AI and engineering initiative.
Internally, the same principles are taking root. Myntra initiated early implementation of AI coding assistance, leading to the realization that approximately 30% of code now entering production is generated by AI. The broader goal is to not only advance code generation but to enhance the entire software delivery lifecycle, encompassing engineering speed, quality, and internal productivity.
The overarching insight is that for digitally native companies, cloud efficiency has evolved beyond merely minimizing infrastructure expenses. It involves enabling business growth while controlling cost inflation. Once this foundation is established, the logical next step is leveraging the same strategic discipline to transform cloud computing, AI, and engineering into a robust value generator. Myntra’s experience illustrates this shift in focus—from optimization exclusively as a constraint to optimization as a significant advantage.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are solely those of the speakers and have been derived from discussions at the ETCIO Cloud Summit 2026. ETCIO does not necessarily endorse these views.
(With contributions from Swati Sengupta.)
Published on April 18, 2026, at 08:50 AM IST.
