2,000 SWEs @ $100K each, $200M/year. $40K doesn't sound so bad (my large enterprise employer licenses GitLab Premium and it's worth every cent we pay).
We already hire the people who negotiate the purchase- it's the same people who manage the infrastructure for our onsite instances, etc. IE, that cost is already priced in.
We run our own runners, on a nodegroup in k8s, which downsizes after the runners go idle for a while.
In enterprise, many attempts to save or squeeze a last penny out of something just ends up moving the costs elsewhere in the company, or reducing productivity, or driving away good employees.
We already hire the people who negotiate the purchase- it's the same people who manage the infrastructure for our onsite instances, etc. IE, that cost is already priced in.
We run our own runners, on a nodegroup in k8s, which downsizes after the runners go idle for a while.
In enterprise, many attempts to save or squeeze a last penny out of something just ends up moving the costs elsewhere in the company, or reducing productivity, or driving away good employees.