Amidst the deluge of announcements from AWS around re:Invent this year, one worth highlighting is a rule change on Commitment rate offerings. It's a continuation of rule changes from a year ago, with some additional clarity. If you're a reseller or do business with resellers, read on.
Starting June 1, 2025, AWS is implementing stricter controls on Reserved Instances and Savings Plans within AWS Organizations. RIs and SPs can't be shared by multiple customers within one AWS Organization. This note continues the rules changes from last year, where AWS clarifies what had been a bit of a gray area for the rate optimization ecosystem.
Here’s the AWS statement, from late November:
Dear AWS Partner,
As a valued partner, we appreciate your collaboration and commitment to driving growth and innovation using AWS services. We are writing to inform you of our policies regarding Reserved Instances (RIs) and Savings Plans (SPs).
Amazon EC2 RIs and SPs provide savings for a single end customer’s long-term steady state AWS usage, enabling AWS to deliver the lowest possible prices for RIs and SPs. We are updating our program terms to clearly reflect that RIs and SPs are only for a single end customer’s AWS usage.
We plan to make these program terms effective beginning on June 1, 2025, giving partners time to update their business practices and plan any necessary communications.
If you have any questions, please visit the FAQs on Partner Central:
FAQ for AWS Solution Providers
FAQ for AWS Distributors
We value our partnership and are committed to supporting you through this transition. Together, we can continue to drive innovation and deliver exceptional value to our customers. Thank you for your attention to this
important matter.
Best regards,
Channel Programs Team
Amazon Web Services
There are two pieces to this that merit discussion. First, it's crucial to understand that AWS is the authority in this space; they set and dictate the terms. While they tend to let rate optimizers operate in a gray area for a while, AWS will inevitably tighten its policies. This understanding will help you prepare and adapt to the changes.If you’re an MSP or reseller, the odds are that you started planning for this a year ago.
However, a more intriguing part is that this will mark a new era of customer-specific commitments, which has been rumored for some time.
"AWS is shaking up cloud economics with its latest policy move, forcing FinOps teams to get seriously creative about cost management," writes Lee Wagner, Founder of London-based Impact Technology Solutions. Managed Service Providers are about to turn their world upside down, with customer-specific commitments becoming the new norm. This shake-up is not just a challenge, but also an opportunity for innovation and the emergence of brilliant cloud financial strategies."
If you buy directly from AWS, you won't need to do anything. If you buy from resellers, start planning on transitioning to buying directly, and you might want to reach out to your AWS rep to discuss.
With AI-driven commitment planning, resource recommendations, and expert advice, FinOpsly is also well-suited to assist in any transitions and adaptations that you may have.
You will be hearing from us soon.