Prioritize Core Needs: Focus on essential features that align with your business objectives to maximize value within budget. Leverage Open Source: Use reliable open-source tools and frameworks to reduce licensing costs without compromising quality. Cloud Optimization: Opt for cloud-based solutions with pay-as-you-go models to scale resources as needed and manage costs effectively. Refactor Incrementally: Make small, cost-efficient architectural changes instead of large-scale overhauls. Optimize Performance: Analyze and improve system performance to reduce resource usage and associated costs. Collaborate with Stakeholders: Communicate budget constraints and involve teams in prioritizing architecture upgrades strategically.

Backtracking the factors which influence the situation we can mention 2 big factors which lead to not having the money for security measures: 1. Hire only the best programmers. No friends. No interns. No special exceptions. Especially no special exceptions. There was a post about how Steve Jobs discovered the value of A Players in programming. 2. Company owners, management, business plan, financing. Here that same principles apply. It all could be reduced to the conclusion: all depends on are founding members of the company A Players, or not. That means, many companies are destined to crash or to be hacked by the Russian hackers. Don't allow too late situations to happen.