Explore the root causes of performance variation in cloud environments and learn actionable strategies to minimize unpredictability in this 21-minute conference talk from SREcon25 Europe/Middle East/Africa. Discover why cloud workloads experience unexpected performance fluctuations and understand the specific challenges faced by applications requiring consistent performance, such as high-frequency trading, online gaming, and performance regression testing. Examine practical approaches to achieve greater performance consistency across processing, networking, and storage components in cloud-based systems. Learn about the trade-offs and costs involved in implementing performance optimization strategies, and gain insights into designing and optimizing cloud infrastructure with confidence. The presentation covers both theoretical foundations and practical solutions for managing performance variability in modern cloud environments.