Analyzing recommendations for purchasing AWS reserved instances

Use the Purchase new reserved instance page to get a quick view of the potential savings that you can achieve by purchasing AWS reserved instances. A recommendation is provided for each suggested AWS reserved instance that includes details such as the instance type, region, number of instances, and so on. 

Among all the AWS services, EC2 is the most widely used service. This service has significant billing impact if it is not configured or provisioned properly. The EC2 cost for an AWS account can be reduced significantly if reserved EC2 instances are used for an account for an available zone within a region. Unlike on-demand, when you purchase a reserved instance, you commit to pay for all the hours starting from one year or three year term; in exchange, the hourly rate is lowered significantly. 

Reserved instance recommendation is about providing the optimum count of the reserved instances, so that the operational cost of that account reduces considerably. The recommendation considers aspects like the instance type, usage of on-demand EC2s for extended periods, eligible hours for RI, discount percentage for each RI, and so on. The monthly cost of RI gets calculated with the help of RI pricing for a one-year term and no-upfront option. The estimated saving is the projected cost and actual saving might vary depending on the usage of those instances.

By default, the recommendations are displayed on the Dashboard with a summary of the number of reserved instances to be purchased and the estimated savings that you can achieve by purchasing them. For detailed recommendations, click <Number> Rls. The Recommendations page opens and the instance list is displayed in the Purchase new reserved instances tab. 

From this page, you can achieve the following goals:

• Determine the total number of AWS reserved instances that you must purchase to obtain cost savings.
• Determine the estimated cost savings that you can achieve by purchasing new reserved instances.

To analyze recommendations for purchasing AWS reserved instances

1. In the navigation bar of BMC Helix Cloud Cost, select Recommendations. 
   The Summary section provides a quick overview of the number of reserved instances to be purchased and the estimated savings that you can achieve by purchasing them. The page also contains a table with the type of instance, operating system type, region, number of reserved instances required, estimated savings, and the on-demand cost per month. 
   
2. Click the instance name. 
   The Resource Details page opens. 
3. You can review the details of the reserved instance to be purchased. The recommendation provides the number, specific attributes such as Offering class, Instance type, and so on; and the potential monthly savings that you can achieve by purchasing the reserved instances.
   Every recommendation has an Efficiency icon associated with it. The icon indicates the level of efficiency improvement. It is based on the estimated savings (in $) per month that you can achieve by implementing the recommended actions. One of the following icons is displayed:
   •  - Cost saving is greater than $50
   •  - Cost saving is less than $50 but greater than $25
   •  - Cost saving is less than $25

You can save an offline copy of the page in a CSV file for reference. To do so, click Export All to CSV. When you export to CSV, all the recommendation details are exported. You can use this file as quick reference to purchase the reserved instances.