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What are spot instances?

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As with any cloud service provider, AWS will have spare capacity available to support surges in customer demand. To offset the loss, AWS offers this excess EC2 capacity – in other words, spot instances – at a heavily discounted rate.

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To benefit from these spot instances, users must bid on this unused EC2 capacity in their desired region. The capacity is then allocated to the highest bidder. While it can be a great way to reduce costs by as much as 90%, it is only suitable for workloads that can tolerate interruptions and don’t require continuous availability. This is because AWS will terminate the instance after a two-minute notification in the event that it needs to reclaim the resources, or because the spot price exceeds the bid price. In other words, when other customers are willing to pay more.

What are price uplifts?

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In the context of SaaS, price uplifts refer to an increase in the price of a software subscription. While many software providers will implement price uplifts on an annual basis, typically at the point of renewal, others may review and amend their pricing more frequently, for example on a quarterly basis. It is recommended that buyers negotiate a price uplift cap during the initial contract negotiation stage, placing a limit on the maximum amount the subscription can be increased by within a specified time period.

What is Cloud Cost Optimization?

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Cloud cost optimization refers to the process of reducing and optimizing cloud spending, while ensuring optimal resource utilization and maintaining desired performance levels. It ultimately involves managing cloud costs without compromising business objectives or user experience.

What is an ELA?

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An Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) is a contract between a software vendor and an enterprise customer that sets out the terms and conditions for the licensing of software products across an enterprise. Unlike a Master License Agreement (MLA) which is a more comprehensive business agreement that can cover a range of products and services, an ELA is often used for specific software products.

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While the specific terms and conditions of an ELA can vary, it will typically outline the number and type of licenses covered under the agreement, restrictions or limitation on usage, the duration of the agreement, the fees associated with the license, renewal terms and termination clauses.

What is meant by data storage?

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In the context of cloud computing, data storage refers to the process of storing and managing digital information in either a remote server or a data center provided by a cloud service provider such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure.

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The cloud ultimately provides a versatile platform for storing various types of data, whether that be documents, media files, application data, machine learning data or structured data.

What is a reduction clause?

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A reduction clause refers to a provision in a software agreement that allows customers to reduce the number of licenses or users covered by their subscription during the term of an agreement. This provides customers with flexibility to adjust their plan to meet evolving business needs, while avoiding paying for licenses or users they no longer require or needing to terminate the contract. The specific terms and requirements of a reduction clause may vary depending on the SaaS provider and the subscription agreement, for example it may be subject to a minimum number of licenses or users.