Yeah, this looks like a FUD hit job, possibly by entities made obsolete by a move to AWS.
There are just too many solutions to egress optimization to mention (CDN edge caching, rate limit, throttling, tiered discounts, multi-year agreements).
No gov procurement deal at this scale gets sticker shock from retail prices.
Totally and utterly not a FUD hit job. Just a reporter finding a document that told a story. I am that reporter. And FWIW when people push a dirty story that's clearly in their interests to have in print, I either don't write it because I won't be their cats-paw, or I mention it in the story. This was in plain sight, but I guess hadn't been read by anyone who understands cloud.
There are just too many solutions to egress optimization to mention (CDN edge caching, rate limit, throttling, tiered discounts, multi-year agreements).
No gov procurement deal at this scale gets sticker shock from retail prices.