Are Reserved Instances Being Deprecated?
There's nothing official, yet we can see this coming:
Victor Garcia
April 20, 2025
AWS
[DEPRECATION NOTICE] Reserved Instances?
AWS is making a quiet but important change to how customers can save money on their cloud services. Since late last year, new EC2 instance types no longer support Reserved Instances (RIs), only offering Savings Plans instead.
This shift shows AWS's direction for the future of cost savings. Savings Plans give the same discounts as RIs but need less work to manage. The change has been smooth - most customers haven't even noticed it happening.
What this means for AWS users:
Existing RIs will keep working as normal
New instance types will only work with Savings Plans
The free AWS Savings Plan Purchase Analyzer tool helps find the best deals
Companies won't need special vendors to manage their savings anymore
While AWS isn't forcing anyone to stop using RIs right away, companies should start planning to use Savings Plans as their main way to save money on AWS services.
Together with CloudZero
The Cloud Cost Playbook
Struggling to control cloud costs? We’ve got you covered.
Our Cloud Cost Playbook is designed to help you:
Gain full visibility into your cloud spend
Uncover hidden savings opportunities
Build a cost-efficient cloud strategy
Get the insights you need to optimize your cloud investments and drive profitability.
FOCUS
Learning FOCUS: SKUs
Another great article by Michael Flanakin. This week he explains how Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) work from the FOCUS perspective.
A SKU is a code that helps track specific products. In cloud computing, SKUs represent things you can buy or use. Most cloud costs come from resources using SKUs rather than direct user actions. When a virtual machine runs, it uses compute hours. When you store files, you pay for the space over time. And some services charge only when you actively use them.
The article explains how SKUs have different prices based on:
Location (different countries)
Purchase method (on-demand vs subscription)
Service agreements
Regional availability
Key points about SKU tracking:
SKUs can work across multiple resource types
One SKU (like bandwidth) can apply to many services
Cloud providers monitor resource usage through "meters"
Meters work like utility meters at home, tracking how much you use
FINOPS EVENTS
Cloud Usage Optimization & Governance Summit
Optimize your costs with real, scalable strategies to impact of engineering decisions in cloud environments.
May 7th, 2025
11:00 AM [EST] / 5:00 PM [Europe/Madrid Time]
Join the Cloud Usage Optimization & Governance Summit, an online event key for FinOps, Engineers and Cloud Management professionals who want to go beyond the simple cost reduction.
Learn about:
How to implement Policies and Governance at scale to last in time
Case studies and Best practices to optimize your cloud workloads and reduce waste
Effective strategies to align engineers and finance to common targets.
FINOPS PRACTICE
Structured Approach to FinOps
Here’s a structured way to handle cloud costs through FinOps across three main levels:
Foundation Level - The basics you need to start
Set up proper account organization
Tag and group resources correctly
Control who can access what
Structure Level - The organization and teams
Create dedicated teams for cloud management
Set up clear rules about spending
Make sure everyone knows who pays for what
Process Level - The daily activities
Regular cost checks
Automatic resource management
Turn off unused services
FINOPS AS CODE
[CODE] Finops Dashboard for AWS Cost Analysis
Here’s a Power BI dashboard created to track and understand AWS cloud costs better. The tool helps companies see where their money goes in the cloud. The dashboard shows important information in different ways:
Daily costs in dollars
Which AWS services cost the most
How much is spent in different regions
Costs split by development, testing, and production tags
The creator used these tools to build it:
Power BI Desktop for making charts
Microsoft Excel to prepare the data
AWS billing information
Knowledge from FinOps certification
The dashboard is free to download and use. It was created by Izadora Sobral, who has certifications in AWS Cloud and FinOps.
📺️ PODCAST
How to Master FinOps Dashboards
Another expert sharing his insights on FinOps Weekly Podcast!
Learn how dashboards, FinOps, and open-source tools are transforming FinOps and cost optimization. Gain insights into customer demands and challenges, and the future of cloud efficiency with visualization tools
🎖️ MENTION OF HONOUR
[PDF] Serverless Architecture: Transforming Cloud Economics & FinOps Strategy
This whitepaper looks at how serverless computing changes the way companies handle their cloud costs and FinOps. The benefits of serverless are clear:
Companies save money by not paying for unused server space
Costs directly match business activity - you pay more when busy, less when quiet
Developers can focus on writing code instead of managing servers
However, there are some challenges. Some applications have delays when starting up after being inactive. Moreover, it can be harder to find and fix problems across many small functions. In addition to that, security needs extra attention due to more entry points
Real-world results show interesting patterns:
For unpredictable workloads: Companies saved up to 45% by switching to serverless
For steady, high-traffic systems: Traditional servers were actually 28% cheaper
For seasonal activities: Serverless saved 60% on costs
Serverless computing works best when companies choose the right tasks for it - especially those with varying levels of activity rather than constant demands.
Join the FinOps Weekly Community
We just launched a community and we are looking forward to have you with us!
An open space for making FinOps for Everyone a reality
Announcements
Providers
Microsoft has released version 0.9 of their FinOps toolkit, bringing new features to help teams manage cloud costs better.
Google Cloud announced lots of stuff at Google Cloud Next
Vendors
Great article by Ed Moran: FinOps Field Notes: Why Finance Needs a Seat at the Cloud Table
DoIt launched CloudFlow, No-code Automation Tool
🏆 Quick Wins Resources
Evergreen FinOps Resources to apply Today!
Professional Spotlight
Erik Peterson
FinOps Engineering with Passion
Erik name was in the top list of most recurrent mentions to be here! We had a wondeful chat together with Jez on Thursday. He’s made amazing contributions, specially on the line of Million Dollar lines of Code, and of course driving CloudZero!
That’s all for this week. See you next Sunday!
Before You Go …
Whenever You Are Ready, Here’s How We Can Collaborate
Master FinOps with us: Learn about our Mastering FinOps Courses, taught by FinOps Professionals like the author Alfonso San Miguel.
Sponsor this newsletter: Promote your company in this newsletter and reach the FinOps audience that wants to maximize business value and reduce costs.
Collaborate with SmartClouds: Our brand expands to more than just newsletters. Podcasts, Posts, Webinars, Events, and any collaboration related to FinOps are available.
Rate Today's NewsletterFeedback = Better Newsletter for You |
P.S. 1: Know someone who’ll enjoy this newsletter? Please forward it. You’ll make them Stay Ahead in FinOps. Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe and get all editions!
P.S. 2: I’ll do my best to provide you with the best content. However, some of it may slip. If you think something should have been included, please REPLY to this