On-demand self-service is a key characteristic (and benefit) of cloud computing. When large-scale service landscapes are deployed using a single account, rules and processes around usage of that account become necessary, often involving approval steps that increase turnaround time. A better approach is a multi-account cloud setup where several accounts are used, in the extreme one account per team. This does add overhead in other places, for example, ensuring shared billing, enabling communication between VPCs and managing the relationship with the cloud provider. However, it often accelerates development and it usually improves security, because single-service accounts are easier to audit and, in the case of a breach, the impact is greatly reduced. Having multiple accounts also reduces stickiness, because an account provides a good boundary for services that can be moved en bloc to another cloud provider.
