Cloudability Simplifies AWS Reserved Instance Decisions

Grazed from InformationWeek. Author: Charles Babcock.

Amazon Web Services has altered its Reserved Instance (RI) terms to enable customers to make certain changes after the contract is signed. Even with new powers to modify a contract, setting initial terms is not as simple as it sounds. Cloudability is stepping in to try to make it easier.

AWS Reserved Instance customers may now change the availability zone in which a RI runs or the network attributes assigned to it, but they can’t vary the lifespan set forth in the contract. RIs come with one-year or three-year subscriptions. In the past, customers were stuck with whatever RI attributes they signed up for, over the duration of the contract. But the RIs also come with a significant discount over Amazon’s on-demand server prices…

Availability zones may be changed, provided customers stay in the same region, such as U.S. West in Oregon or Northern California, or U.S. East in Ashburn, Va. The data center complex at U.S. East contains five availability zones, and RI users may move among them. Availability zones have their own power and communications links within the data center complex. Amazon urges customers to deploy to more than one zone to guarantee uptime…

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