New Savings Proposals: approve, test and roll back cost changesLearn more Sign in|Talk to a cloud engineer
Product tourGet a demo

Keep commitments used and renewed on time

Coverage, utilization, inventory and an expiry timeline for AWS Savings Plans and Reserved Instances, and for Azure reservations and savings plans.

Get a demoSee Recommendations
What you're watching
  1. 1
    Read the three gauges

    Across 4 AWS accounts: 71% coverage, 96% utilization and a 27% effective savings rate against on-demand.

  2. 2
    Scan the inventory

    Four commitments with type, term, monthly amount and utilization. The prod-core Compute Savings Plan, $7,400/mo, is flagged red at 19 days.

  3. 3
    Check the expiry timeline

    Each end date sits on a 12-month axis. The tooltip warns coverage drops from 71% to 44% unless the plan is renewed.

Who does thisFinance manager, with the FinOps leadWhat you getA renewal decision made with 19 days to spare, before $7,400/mo goes back to on-demand.
Coverageshare of eligible usage under a commitment
Utilizationshare of what you bought that is actually used
Timelineevery expiry on one 12-month axis
AWS + AzureSavings Plans, RIs and Azure reservations

Commitments lapse without anyone noticing

Savings Plans and Reserved Instances only save money while coverage is right and renewals happen on time.

Cost

A Savings Plan expires unnoticed

What usually happens: A Compute Savings Plan ends on a Tuesday. Usage moves back to on-demand rates and nobody notices until the invoice.

How CloudLens resolves it: The expiry timeline showed prod-core’s plan ending in 19 days, with the $7,400/mo that would return to on-demand.

Resolved
Waste

Buying commitments you won’t use

What usually happens: A team buys a bigger commitment to raise coverage while the one they already have is only partly used.

How CloudLens resolves it: Coverage and utilization sit side by side, so you buy more only when what you own is fully used.

Resolved
Finance

Business cases that don’t hold

What usually happens: Savings estimates include storage and data transfer that no commitment can cover, so the purchase looks better than it is.

How CloudLens resolves it: Commitment recommendations are priced on coverable usage only.

Resolved

How Marcus renewed a plan with 19 days to spare

One morning of checking before spending money, instead of a surprise on next month’s invoice.

MHMarcus HaleFinance manager, Lumora Retail

Lumora Retail is a fictional company. The people, names and numbers are sample data.

    1
    Mon 09:3019 days left

    Opens the expiry timeline

    The prod-core Compute Savings Plan ends in 19 days. The timeline shows $7,400/mo of usage that would go back to on-demand rates.
    2
    Mon 09:45

    Checks utilization first

    The plan has run near full utilization for 90 days, so the whole commitment is being used and renewing at the same size is safe.
    3
    Mon 10:10

    Looks at coverage by service

    The pricing mix shows EC2 and EKS well covered, but Amazon RDS for orders-db still runs entirely on-demand.
    4
    Mon 10:30$1,480/mo

    Reads the RDS recommendation

    A Reserved Instance recommendation for orders-db is priced at $1,480/mo, calculated on coverable usage only.
    5
    Wed 15:00

    Renews and buys in the payer account

    After sign-off, finance renews the plan and buys the reservation in the AWS console, where commitments are purchased.
    6
    Next Wed

    Checks that it landed

    RDS coverage now includes the new reservation, and the timeline shows the plan’s new end date.
Savings Plan ending soon?

Check coverage and expiry with an engineer

Get a demo

Buy the right amount and keep it used

See which services still run on-demand

Commitment recommendations
The pricing mix for each service shows on-demand, Savings Plans, Reserved Instances and Spot side by side. Gaps point to the recommendation that closes them, priced on coverable usage only.
  • Pricing mix by service
  • Gaps linked to recommendations
  • AWS and Azure views
What you're watching
  1. 1
    Read the mix for each service

    Amazon EC2 is 78% covered and EKS 65%. Amazon RDS is only 38% covered.

  2. 2
    Open the RDS gap

    62% of RDS runs on-demand. Reserved Instances for orders-db (db.r6g.2xlarge) would save about $1,480/mo, one click from the recommendation.

  3. 3
    Switch to Azure

    The same view shows pay-as-you-go, savings plan and reservations. App Service runs entirely pay-as-you-go.

Who does thisFinOps lead planning the next purchaseWhat you getThe next commitment to buy, priced on usage it can actually cover.

Make sure what you bought gets used

EOL & Deprecation deadlines
Track utilization over time, see which instance families your commitments cover, and compare payment options before you renew. In the example, a 1-year Compute Savings Plan is $7,400/mo with No Upfront and $6,710/mo equivalent with All Upfront.
  • 90-day utilization trend
  • Instance family distribution
  • No, Partial or All upfront compared
What you're watching
  1. 1
    Check 90-day utilization

    The Savings Plan has averaged 96.4%, close to the 100% line, so what was bought is being used.

  2. 2
    See which families it covers

    m7g takes 34% of covered usage, c7g 22%, r6g 18% and m6i 16%.

  3. 3
    Compare renewal options

    No Upfront saves 27%, Partial Upfront 30% and All Upfront 32%. The monthly equivalent falls from $7,400 to $6,710.

Who does thisFinance manager deciding how to pay for the renewalWhat you getA renewal sized to real usage, with the payment option picked on the numbers.

Savings that still hold next quarter

Coverage and utilization together

Buying more only makes sense when what you already own is fully used.

End dates you can see

Every commitment shows its end date and the monthly amount that goes back to on-demand.

AWS and Azure

Savings Plans and Reserved Instances on AWS, reservations and savings plans on Azure.

Recommendations Amortized cost in Cost Explorer

Commitment questions

AWS Savings Plans and Reserved Instances, and Azure reservations and savings plans, including coverage, utilization and expiry.

Only on usage a commitment can actually cover. Storage, data transfer and other charges no commitment applies to are left out, so estimates are not overstated.

Commitments are usually bought in the payer account. Connecting it gives complete inventory and utilization across linked accounts.

Ready to see CloudLens in action?

Connect a read-only AWS role or Azure service principal. We'll walk you through your bill, your security graph and the first things worth fixing.