这个 AWS 预留实例/ Savings Plans 模拟引擎有意思/有价值吗?
2 分•作者: Exstratus•大约 1 个月前
简而言之;我们构建的这个 AWS RI/SP 工具可能具有独特的功能,对于运行大型、高变动性工作负载且覆盖率目标较高的公司尤其重要。我们希望了解这一点的真实程度,以及我们是否应该向他人开放此工具,甚至可能免费或作为开源软件提供。
背景:我们是一家小型云成本咨询公司,而非工具供应商。我们为自己构建了大量内部工具。我们服务的公司年支出在七位数到九位数(美元)之间。
在过去几年中,我们构建的内部工具之一是一个用于 RI/SP 的模拟引擎,它可以执行多项操作,其中一些我们认为可能是当前市场上的独一无二的,并可能对他人有价值。
1. 可视化任何承诺类型(任何 RI、任何 SP、任何变体)的整个承诺节省/折扣曲线,显示在每个承诺级别实现的精确节省和边际折扣率。这解锁了我们认为的最佳购买策略:“购买 SP 美元或 RI 单位,直到下一个便士/实例小时产生的折扣低于 10%”,而不是接受平均折扣的“全有或全无”建议(例如,“通过以 5% 的总体折扣购买 10 美元/小时的 SP 来覆盖所有内容”)。
2. 这些节省/折扣曲线也可以堆叠起来,以显示折扣率的变化如何解锁更多的覆盖空间。例如,决定使用预付美元购买部分或全部承诺会改变折扣率,这不仅是一个关于现金投资回报的决定,还会改变曲线的形状,从而在相同的风险水平下,能够以更低的成本覆盖更多的基础设施。
3. 构建“假设”场景,堆叠即将进行的计划购买,添加或删除已覆盖的使用量,以及过期不需要的承诺,以查看在各种假设下节省如何变化。本质上,我们采用所需回溯期的历史使用量,根据我们的想法修改它以进行前瞻性预测,并应用我们想要的任何当前或计划中的承诺。如果需要,我们可以同时运行多个此类场景来规避风险。
4. 查看通过购买将在现有 SP 之前应用的承诺来提高节省。如果您的 AWS 控制台或首选工具目前显示您只有计算 SP 购买的可能性,以及 RI 和 EC2 实例 SP 的可能性很低或没有,那么您肯定属于这种情况。AWS 不会向您展示当前占用覆盖空间的 SP 折扣如何可以被推迟到折扣曲线的后面,这将解锁购买特定目标 RI 或 EC2 实例 SP 的可能性,这些 RI 或 SP 将首先应用且折扣水平更高。
5. 它可以由 LLM 驱动,以缩小到在不模拟可能性空间的情况下无法看到的策略。重要的是,生成的数据紧凑、清晰且易于总结。
将在评论中添加几张带有解释的图片,以帮助说明上述内容。
问题:
1. 这些功能是真正独一无二的吗?还是已经存在一些工具(无论是付费还是开源)在做类似的事情?
2. (如果 #1 的答案是“是的,独一无二”)这些功能是否足够有价值,值得您将其纳入自己的实践中,还是它们只具有边际兴趣(或者,可能完全不感兴趣)?
3. 您认为模拟引擎是否可以用于解决我在此未特别建议的其他相关问题,并且这些问题会更有价值?(我们有很多想法……策略回测、并购合并账单账户场景等)
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TLDR; This AWS RI/SP tool we built might have unique features that are important especially for companies running large, high-variability workloads with high coverage targets. We want feedback on how true that is and whether we should open this up to others, possibly even for free or as OSS.<p>Setup: We're a small cloud cost consultancy, but not a tools vendor. We do build a lot of internal tooling for our own use. We serve companies spending 7- to 9-figures (USD) annually.<p>One of the internal tools we built over the past several years is a simulation engine for RIs/SPs that can do a number of things, some of which we believe might be one-of-a-kind in the space today and could be valuable to others.<p>1.) Visualize the entire commitment savings/discount curve for any commitment type (any RI, any SP, of any flavor), showing the exact savings achieved and the marginal discount rate at every level of commitment. This unlocks what we feel is the best purchasing strategy: "buy SP dollars or RI units until the next penny/instance-hour yields less than a 10% discount," rather than taking the all-or-nothing recommendation with an averaged discount (e.g., "Cover everything by buying a $10/hr SP at a 5% overall discount").<p>2.) Such savings/discount curves can also be stacked to show how changes in discount rate unlock more coverage space. For example, deciding to purchase some or all of a commitment with upfront dollars changes the discount rate, which is not just an ROI-on-cash decision, but also changes the shape of the curve to allow more infrastructure to be covered profitably at the same risk level.<p>3.) Build "what-if" scenarios that stack upcoming planned purchases, add or remove covered usage, and expire unwanted commitments to see how savings change under various assumptions. Essentially, we take the historical usage for the desired look-back period, modify it according to our whims for the forward projection, and apply any of the current or planned commitments that we want. We run multiple such scenarios simultaneously if needed to suss out risks.<p>4.) See how savings can be improved by purchasing commitments that would be applied before your existing SPs. If your AWS console or tool-of-choice currently shows you having only Compute SP purchase possibilities, and low or no RI and EC2 Instance SP possibilities, you're definitely in that boat. AWS doesn't show you how SP discounts that are currently eating the coverage space could instead be pushed out along the discount curve, which would unlock purchasing specific targeted RIs or EC2 Instance SPs that would get applied first and at higher discount levels.<p>5.) It can be driven by LLMs to narrow in on strategies that aren't visible without simulating the possibility space. Importantly, the data produced are compact, legible, and easily summarized.<p>Adding a couple of images in comment with explainers to help communicate some of the above.<p>Questions:<p>1.) Are these features truly unique? Or is there some existing tool (whether paid or OSS) essentially doing the same thing?<p>2.) (If answer to #1 is "yes, unique") Are these features enough of a value-add that they would be worth the effort to bring into your own practice, or are they only marginally interesting (or, perhaps, completely uninteresting)?<p>3.) Do you think the simulation engine could be used to solve other related problems that I'm not specifically suggesting here and that would be more valuable? (We have a lot of ideas... strategy back-testing, M&A merged billing account scenarios, etc.)