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Show HN: Usage 2.0 – Cut AWS Spend by 57% in 5 Minutes

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Re: Show HN: Usage 2.0 – Cut AWS Spend by 57% in 5 Minutes

#41

Post by sokoloff »

kavehkhorram wrote: post #38
acdha wrote: post #17

> We buy Reserved Instances on your behalf (a billing layer change only) and bundle them with guaranteed buyback This is by setting your AWS account as the payer account so you can aggregate? I’m curious how the finances will work out - at least one of them had challenges balancing their RIs with customer changes since there wasn’t a feedback cue for developers not to change instance types casually. On a marketing le…

This is mainly in reference to the fact that Reserved Instances don't have any bearing on the instances themselves (ie. no code change, performance chance, server downtime, etc.). The 57% savings is the difference between the 3-year, no-upfront, standard Reserved Instance rate and the On-demand rate (for RDS it is 30% vs on-demand) As far as compute savings plans: 1-yr SP is anywhere from 26-29% savings vs on-demand…

If you take 20% of the savings, my max savings are ~45%. Even that assumes my AWS bill is entirely instances.

I think you have a product that some companies will really want. It’s a good product; don’t let your marketing promises exceed the true savings by so much that it makes people leery of what else you might be hiding or stating in a less than straightforward manner.

Re: Show HN: Usage 2.0 – Cut AWS Spend by 57% in 5 Minutes

#43

Post by cj »

motoboi wrote: post #34
cj wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> AWS massively made RDS instances cheaper when they released RDS on Graviton. I can only imagine that'd nearly put a company like usage.ai out of business. Are the on demand and reserved prices the same? If RI’s exist are still cheaper, it shouldn’t impact their business model.

They made the new instance type much cheaper. Users already committed to RI cannot change instance types and remain bonded to the contract. Usage.ai and others give you an insurance that you can get out of the contract. If that existed before, users would return the old instances to usage.ai and get the cheaper ones. Usage.ai end up with a lot of reserved instances no one wants, with a large contract to pay.

I guess it depends if they’re buying convertible or non-convertible RI’s behind the scenes. (Unless RDS doesn’t have the concept of convertibles)

Re: Show HN: Usage 2.0 – Cut AWS Spend by 57% in 5 Minutes

#44

Post by [deleted] »

axlee wrote: post #40
kavehkhorram wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a way. Resellers typically incorporate a company's AWS organization into theirs, and via resource sharing of savings instruments, are able to pass on savings to their customers within their portfolio. Since they have an AWS organization that is comprised of many companies and their AWS accounts, they are able to negotiate special pricing arrangements with AWS (typically in the form of an EDP) based on the total sp…

Why would they be in a good negotiating position with AWS, given that they have to be on AWS to even exist in the first place? I don't get why amazon would ever negotiate down with these guys, they're the ones who absolutely need the product.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Usage 2.0 – Cut AWS Spend by 57% in 5 Minutes

#45

Post by gesman »

88913527 wrote: post #32

Why is AWS okay with this-- Isn't this profit that should be in their pocket?

Yes it should be and will be in a due time.

AMZN carefully watches the marketplace for "wonders" who are monetizing inefficiencies and if these inefficiencies worth big enough profit, AMZN will fill the gap themselves.

Platform is never your friend or "partner" even if they say so.

Re: Show HN: Usage 2.0 – Cut AWS Spend by 57% in 5 Minutes

#47

Post by dpkirchner »

mulmboy wrote: post #33

How does this compare to what's offered by doit? https://www.doit.com/flexsave/ From my conversations with doit sounds like they offer a similar service in that doit acts as an AWS reseller (~~some billing magic) and they apply commitment discounts etc. and pass along a portion of the savings. doit also claim to throw in free cloud architecture and support consulting services as a value add.

> Using machine learning, Flexsave continuously monitors your cloud usage to identify compute instances that are not covered by existing commitments

Huh.

Re: Show HN: Usage 2.0 – Cut AWS Spend by 57% in 5 Minutes

#48

Post by don-code »

For my own curiosity, what's the benefit of a one-time engagement with Usage AI over a continuing engagement with a tool (plus proserv, if merited) like CloudHealth? Much of the trouble with AWS spend is due to deltas as the platform changes, rather than a single realization that AWS costs too much.

(Disclaimer: I was an engineer at CloudHealth four years ago.)

Re: Show HN: Usage 2.0 – Cut AWS Spend by 57% in 5 Minutes

#49

Post by jason_wo »

This sounds very cool! How does it work technically? I have checked your website but I am still not sure.

How do I "buy" the instances using usage.ai instead of AWS? Do you need additional tooling or does it work with awscli/terraform? How do you integrate with my account and how do "your instances" appear in my account and how can I sell it back?

As far as I understand, I can buy/sell reserved instances from you in a flexible way, so they can be used like on-demand instances.

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