I’m excited to share a new update that rolled out to Usage.AI customers today, the ability to further maximize your savings with our new Reservation Blend algorithm. Going forward, the Usage.AI dashboard will recommend a blend of Convertible RIs, Standard RIs (with guaranteed buyback), and Compute Savings Plans. And upon approval, the automation will begin the process of purchasing 3-year CRIs, SRIs, and CSPs to maximize your coverage and utilization – we aim for, eventually after a certain ramp up period, 99%+ coverage and 99%+ utilization. And as your instances change type, region, size, family, or even are turned off, Usage.AI automatically “deflates” your reservation coverage to match your new cloud footprint. Bottom line, you’re getting the flexibility to decrease and change your cloud footprint with the nearly 60% savings of a long-term 3-year reservation. 

Importantly, Usage.AI always automates savings within the cloud providers’ Terms of Service. We worked closely with AWS on this new strategy and we care deeply about helping our customers save money, but not at the expense of breaking the rules (which some vendors are sadly doing). 

That aside, what’s new with your Usage.AI dashboard?

• The ability to set controls over what you want reserved:

Want to make sure certain instance families or regions aren’t automatically covered? Set it on your dashboard and the automation will make sure not to purchase those reservations.

• The ability to select what instances might be shut off soon:

Planning on upgrading some instances, moving them to a new region, or shutting them off in the near future? Simply plug that information into your Usage.AI dashboard and the software will take that into account as it ramps up the savings.

• Automatic sale of Standard RIs:

We will continue to sell non-discounted Standard RIs on the RI Marketplace when they go underutilized for at least 72 hours. You will be credited back for all underutilized hours in the form of a credit on your next Usage.AI bill.

• Automatic deflations and conversions of Convertible RIs:

On an hourly basis, Usage.AI monitors the usage of your reservations and deflates your convertibles if there’s a chance of your CRIs or SRIs or CSPs going underutilized. 

With the right combination of instruments – the region-flexible but rigid savings of a CSP, the flexibility of a CRI to inflate and deflate your commitments on an hourly basis, and the ultimate flexibility of a SRI with guaranteed buyback – your organization can have a world-class FinOps function that focuses on maximizing savings.