Techniques for managing operation in cloud computing systems are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method can include receiving data representing a guaranteed value of a performance metric of a cloud service and an error budget and deriving a switching threshold based on a combination of the value of the performance metric and the error budget. The method also includes determining a current value of the performance metric of the cloud service and causing the cloud computing system to selectively switch between operational modes for providing the cloud service based on a comparison between the determined current value of the performance metric and the switching threshold.