Most people understand that a Compute Savings Plan saves money on cloud compute. Far fewer understand the precise mechanism which matters, because getting the commitment amount wrong in either direction costs real money.
Too high: you pay for committed hours you do not use. Too low: you miss savings on usage that could have been covered. The difference between a well-sized Savings Plan and a poorly-sized one can easily be tens of thousands of dollars per year on a mid-size fleet.
This guide walks through the exact mechanics, hour by hour, with worked examples on both AWS and Azure.
Step 1: You Choose a Commitment Amount
Before anything else, you decide how much per hour you want to commit. This is the single most important decision in the entire process. Everything else is automatic, the discount application, the coverage calculation, the billing.
