The Challenges of AWS Savings Plans and Reserved Instances

Many businesses turn to AWS Savings Plans (SPs) and Reserved Instances (RIs) to reduce computing costs by committing to long-term usage. These native AWS offerings provide significant discounts over on-demand resources, but there’s a catch – rigid, long-term commitments. Typically, businesses must commit to using resources for one to three years to unlock these discounts.  

This rigid structure poses a challenge for businesses with unpredictable workloads or rapidly evolving needs. When you’re locked into these long-term commitments, changes in your cloud requirements can lead to overcommitting, resulting in unused resources and inflated costs. 

That’s where Archera’s Insured Commitments and Cloudelligent’s FinOps expertise provide a smarter approach to cloud cost management. Archera converts your AWS Reserved Instances (RIs) and Savings Plans (SPs) into short-term, flexible Insured Commitments with terms as short as 30 days. With Archera’s free management platform and innovative commitment insurance, you gain flexibility and control over your cloud costs, minimizing risk and maximizing savings. In partnership with Cloudelligent, this solution provides the control, automation, and optimization needed to manage cloud costs without rigid contracts.

In this blog, we’ll explore the limitations of traditional AWS cost-saving models and show how Archera’s Insured Commitments can help you achieve flexibility, savings, and long-term efficiency. 

Save on Your Terms: How Archera’s Insured Commitments Work

Forget the one-size-fits-all cloud saving plans – Archera lets you tailor your commitments, so you only pay for what you actually need. Their Insured Commitments — Guaranteed Savings Plans (GSPs) and Guaranteed Reserved Instances (GRIs) — offer unique discounts that give you control and flexibility, ensuring cloud optimization by saving on cloud usage that you couldn’t otherwise cover with native AWS commitments. 

While traditional AWS savings plans and reserved instances lock you into a one- to three-year commitment, Archera’s Insured Commitments offer flexibility, control, and cost optimization for businesses who are looking to pay as they go rather than lock in long-term. 

Mentioned below are some of the key features and benefits of Archera’s Insured Commitments.  

• Flexible Commitment Terms: You can choose commitment terms as short as 30 days, allowing you to adjust your cloud resources as needed and prevent overcommitting. 
• Rebate for Unused Capacity: After your minimum term has been met, Archera will rebate you for underutilization. This helps you avoid paying for resources you’re not using.  
• Moneyback Guarantee: If you underutilize your resources, Archera offers a moneyback guarantee to reimburse you for unused capacity.  
• Cost Savings on Short-Term Consumption: You can still achieve savings on cloud consumption, even for short-term needs that wouldn’t be covered by traditional AWS commitments. 
• Balance Savings and Flexibility: Archera allows you to choose between greater savings or more flexible terms, depending on your business priorities. 
• Rebates for Underutilization: If you no longer need certain commitments, you can receive rebates that provide extra financial protection. Rebates refer to refunds that businesses receive if they underutilize or no longer need the cloud commitments they’ve made through Archera. 
• Interest-Free Premium Deferral: If your organization is using cloud service provider (CSP) credits, Archera allows you to defer premium payments without added interest, helping with cash flow management. 

Figure 1: CSP Commitments Vs. Archera Short-Term Insured Commitments 

Archera’s GSPs and GRIs make it easier to match cloud consumption to your needs without being tied to long-term commitments. 

Simplify Commitment Management With Archera’s Free Platform

AWS Savings Plans (SPs) and Reserved Instances (RIs) offer up to 70%+ discounts, but managing the trade-offs between flexibility, risk, and savings can be complex. Archera’s platform simplifies this by providing clear insights and recommendations tailored to your organization’s unique usage patterns, helping you make informed decisions and maximize savings without unnecessary risk. This streamlines cloud cost optimization while reducing the complexity of commitment management. 

Full Control Over AWS Commitments

Archera provides a comprehensive view of your historical usage, future forecasts, and infrastructure growth plans to generate custom commitment strategies across all AWS services. You have the flexibility to fully customize these plans or use them as a base for your own. Once you’ve made your selections, Archera automates the execution directly within your billing system, making commitment management seamless and efficient. 

Automation on Your Terms

The platform also enables automation when you want it and allows you to schedule Convertible Reserved Instance (CRI) exchanges and SP/RI renewals. Unlike fully automated platforms, Archera ensures you remain in charge of your commitments and lets you customize commitments while leveraging automation to ensure you never miss out on savings. 

With full control over your cloud resources and the ability to schedule automation on your terms, Archera ensures you maximize savings without sacrificing flexibility or control. 

Forecasting and Planning: Achieving Long-Term Cloud Cost Control

Forecasting future cloud costs is no easy task, especially when juggling fluctuating usage and changing rates. Archera’s platform simplifies this process with advanced forecasting tools and allows you to craft multi-year strategies using a 60-month forecast model. You can simulate various growth rates, projected cost optimizations, and future infrastructure investments to align your cloud vision with long-term planning. 

With Archera, you can: 

• Build Procurement Scenarios: Develop purchasing strategies based on your long-term cloud growth plans and forecast. 
• Optimize Credit Use: Ensure your AWS credits last longer and align with future projects, avoiding high on-demand costs as credits expire. 
• Strategically Plan for Credit Expiration: Prepare a commitment strategy that activates when your credits expire, helping you avoid unexpected costs. 

By integrating Archera’s scenario modeling into your long-term purchasing strategy, you can make informed decisions that lead to more efficient cloud cost management. 

How Cloudelligent and Archera Help You Simplify the Process 

Cloud resource management can be tricky, but with Cloudelligent by your side, the guesswork disappears. Our FinOps experts ensure you steer clear of any unnecessary complications. By partnering with Archera, Cloudelligent manages every aspect of your cloud commitments, from planning to purchasing and selling RIs, so you can focus on your business. Here’s how: 

• Comprehensive Analysis: Cloudelligent analyzes your cloud usage patterns and provides tailored recommendations using Archera’s platform. We identify where cost savings can be achieved and present multiple options to fit your business needs. 
• Streamlined Decision-Making: You remain in control—Cloudelligent presents recommendations, and you simply approve the plan that works for you. We handle the rest and ensure you always get the best value. 
• End-to-End Management: Cloudelligent manages the complexity, enabling you to save time and focus on your core operations while still optimizing your cloud resources. This end-to-end management not only simplifies your cloud commitments but also enhances your overall cloud optimization strategy. 

When Should You Consider Archera’s Insured Commitments?

Traditional SPs and RIs may not be ideal for businesses dealing with uncertain workload demands, short-term projects, or seasonal spikes. Your cloud commitments should be as adaptable as your business needs. When workloads are unpredictable, Archera’s Insured Commitments have your back without tying you down. They offer a flexible alternative with the same cost-saving benefits but without rigid long-term agreements. You can consider using Archera to save on: 

• Short-term Projects: Ideal for seasonal workloads or time-limited data analyses. 
• Infrastructure Migrations: Support your transitions or rearchitecting efforts. 
• Experimentation: Perfect for testing Generative AI or large language model (LLM) training. 
• Uncertain Workloads: Easily scale up or down as needed without commitment concerns. 

Take Control of Your Cloud Costs With Archera and Cloudelligent

Managing cloud commitments doesn’t have to be complicated. With Archera’s free platform and commitment insurance products, you can simplify cloud cost management and avoid the pitfalls of long-term commitments. Whether you’re growing quickly or dealing with unpredictable workloads, Cloudelligent and Archera make sure you stay flexible while saving money. 

By teaming up with Cloudelligent, you can unlock short-term Insured Commitments and get more control over your AWS spending. With Archera’s tools and our support, you can reduce AWS On-Demand spend and optimize your cloud investment for the future.  

Ready to tame those wild cloud costs? Schedule a Free Cost Optimization Assessment with our FinOps experts today, and let’s turn that chaos into savings!