> I'm fascinated by the concept of prioritization rules in place rather than simply raising prices.
Given the sudden need and the circumstances behind it putting prices up might not decrease demand enough to make any difference so while the system will be more profitable it won't be any less congested and now you have people paying more but feeling like they are getting less because they had to wait an hour before they could start that little herd of VMs they usually have available immediately on demand.
This could drive people off onto other services, or at least make previously entrenched users look up and scan the horizon.
Given the sudden need and the circumstances behind it putting prices up might not decrease demand enough to make any difference so while the system will be more profitable it won't be any less congested and now you have people paying more but feeling like they are getting less because they had to wait an hour before they could start that little herd of VMs they usually have available immediately on demand.
This could drive people off onto other services, or at least make previously entrenched users look up and scan the horizon.