ProsperOps Adds Cost Optimization Support for RDS, ElastiCache, MemoryDB, Redshift, and OpenSearch

“We LOVE what ProsperOps does for us on EC2, Lambda, and Fargate, but what about RDS?”

I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve heard customers ask this question. While compute is almost always the largest line item on the AWS bill, RDS is usually #2 and ElastiCache, Redshift, and OpenSearch are generally in the Top 10.

To complicate things, AWS only offers Standard RIs to cover these services, which are by nature inflexible. AWS has not released an RI marketplace to sell unutilized Standard RI commitments nor have they released Convertible RIs or Savings Plans. The rigidity of these Standard RI commitments makes it harder to consistently achieve high savings and a world-class Effective Savings Rate because you are at a higher risk of overcommitment when usage drops, and are more likely to hedge with lower coverage when usage increases.

“Managing Reserved Instance (RI) commitments for these services is time-consuming and risky. At any reasonable scale, you are likely spending hours manually coordinating with resource owners trying to project future instance usage, determine upgrade plans, etc.”
– Erik Carlin, Co-Founder and CPO of ProsperOps

There are also fundamentally complex aspects of RI management that even the most sophisticated FinOps practitioners sometimes struggle with. Here are a few examples we’ve seen:

If you run Aurora I/O-Optimized RDS instances, you need to purchase 30% more RI coverage than with Aurora Standard instances to fully cover all usage. How do you best track this difference and blend with Aurora Standard instance usage, within the same engine and instance family, especially when migrating between types?

If you run Oracle BYOL RDS instances, you get RI size flexibility, but if you run both Standard Edition 2 and Enterprise Edition within the same instance family, will the size flexibility extend across editions?

Without the ability to exchange or sell RIs, how do you manage the timing of upgrading to newer, more price-performant instance types/families without creating unutilized RI commitment?

It’s no wonder customers have asked us to support additional AWS services, especially once they’ve experienced the simplicity, efficiency, and incremental savings that the ProsperOps platform delivers.

ProsperOps Autonomous Discount Management

We’ve listened, and I’m excited to announce that ProsperOps Autonomous Discount Management for RDS, ElastiCache, MemoryDB, Redshift, and OpenSearch is now available in Early Access!

ProsperOps’ automated RI management seamlessly optimizes your savings while managing risk with minimal ongoing management overhead.

Maximize savings with intelligent risk mitigation – ProsperOps algorithms automatically distribute commitment over time to maximize flexibility against changes in usage. For example, if usage drops, ProsperOps will automatically stop purchasing new RIs, allowing frequently expiring RIs to burn off to the level that matches your lower usage. Coverage is automatically maximized over time and dynamically adjusts based on the inherent risk mitigation that builds up over time.

Save more time and effort – It’s hard and a ton of work for humans to efficiently manage RIs for these services. With ProsperOps, there are only a handful of settings you configure upfront, after which our platform takes over. You get the leverage of FinOps automation to work smarter and achieve greater savings. Our software is running in the background 24/7 and constantly working to optimize savings so you don’t have to.

You are always in control – ProsperOps algorithms and automation operate within your established constraints. You can selectively choose to disable certain instance types, establish vacate dates for when you anticipate fully exiting an instance type, and more, and our algorithms will adjust to honor your settings.

In addition to automating savings outcomes, our console provides key savings metrics, including Effective Savings Rate, savings and coverage trends, incremental savings, lifetime savings, and more, allowing you to visualize the benefits.

Importantly, ProsperOps always automates savings within the cloud providers’ Terms of Service. We care deeply about removing waste and ensuring our customers save efficiently, but not at the expense of using unpermitted tactics (for example, moving commitments between unaffiliated customers via account transfers, which we’ve unfortunately seen from other optimization providers).