The Commitment Strategy Playbook: RIs, Savings Plans, CUDs

Buy the rate, not the waste

Commitments are the deepest lever on a cloud bill and the one teams most often pull in the wrong order. This playbook is the field reference our practitioners use on engagements: how to choose between reserved instances, savings plans and committed use discounts, how to set coverage and utilization targets, and how to ladder purchases so nothing expires all at once.

It is built for a clean baseline. Every model assumes you rightsize first, then commit, so the discount lands on real usage and not on oversized instances you are about to retire.

What is inside

1. The instrument map: RIs, Savings Plans and CUDs across AWS, Azure, GCP and OCI, side by side
2. Spend-based versus resource-based: choosing flexibility against depth of discount
3. Coverage and utilization targets, and the band a healthy portfolio runs in
4. The buying order: rightsize, forecast the stable base, select, then ladder
5. Laddering schedules that stagger expiry and blend one and three year terms
6. The break-even worksheet: how many months a commitment needs to beat on-demand
7. Multi-account sharing, exchanges, and selling unused reservations
8. The audit checklist we run on an existing portfolio

For the open-access overview, read the complete guide to cloud commitment management and the deep dive on reserved instances vs savings plans vs CUDs. When you want it run for you, see our commitment management service.