Commitment Simulator dashboard

This page explains how to interact with the Commitment Simulator dashboard for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud, including selecting data, reading the summary table, interpreting charts, and understanding page states.

Prerequisites

Before you can view analysis in Commitment Simulator, your cloud accounts must be connected to DoiT Cloud Intelligence so billing data can be imported:

• AWS: Management (payer) accounts with hourly Cost and Usage Report (CUR) data.
• Google Cloud: Billing accounts with billing export data ingested by DoiT.

No PerfectScale for Commitments contract or onboarding is required.

After you connect an account, allow time for DoiT to import and process your billing data. If analysis is not ready yet, the dashboard shows status messages such as We're compiling your data. Commitment Simulator data is updated monthly on the 5th day of each month. See the FAQ for details.

Commitment Simulator dashboard

To access the Commitment Simulator dashboard:

1. Sign in to the DoiT console.

2. Select Rate optimization > PerfectScale for Commitments from the top navigation mega menu.

3. Select Commitment Simulator to launch the dashboard.

4. In the left drawer, select the payer account to analyze, an AWS management account or a Google Cloud billing account. Each payer is analyzed independently.

   

Selectors

Use the dropdowns at the top of the page to define the scope to analyze. Available selectors depend on the cloud provider of the payer account you selected in the drawer.

AWS selectors

Selector	Description
Management Account	The AWS management (payer) account name and ID shown for the account selected in the drawer.
Account	AWS member accounts. Analyze Savings Plans at the organization level (All accounts) or for a single member account.
Month	The billing month to analyze. The most recent month is shown by default.

Google Cloud selectors

Selector	Description
Management Account	The Google Cloud billing account name and ID shown for the account selected in the drawer.
Month	The billing month to analyze. The most recent month is shown by default.
Region	For Cloud SQL and BigQuery Editions, select the region to analyze. Other CUD types apply across all regions and show All regions (not editable).

Commitment types

Select a tab to view a commitment type. A disabled tab means the selected account had no eligible usage for that type during the selected month.

AWS Savings Plan types

Type	Covered services
Compute	Amazon EC2, AWS Fargate (ECS and EKS), AWS Lambda
Machine Learning	AWS SageMaker: Unified Studio Notebooks, Studio JupyterLab, Studio Code Editor, On-Demand Notebooks, RStudio, Processing, Data Wrangler, Training, Real-Time Inference, Async Inference, Batch Transform, HyperPod Clusters
Database	Aurora (RDS Instances, Serverless v2, DSQL), DynamoDB (On-Demand & Provisioned), ElastiCache for Valkey (Instances & Serverless), DocumentDB (Instances & Serverless), Neptune (Instances, Serverless, Analytics), Keyspaces, Timestream, DMS (Instances & Serverless), OpenSearch

• Compute and Machine Learning Savings Plans support all combinations of term (1-year, 3-year) and payment option (No Upfront, Partial Upfront, All Upfront).

• Database Savings Plans only support 1-year term with No Upfront payment.

Google Cloud spend-based CUD types

Type	Covered services
Compute	Compute Engine
Cloud SQL	Cloud SQL (per region)
BigQuery Editions	BigQuery Editions (per region)
AlloyDB	AlloyDB
Spanner	Cloud Spanner
Firestore	Cloud Firestore
Dataflow	Dataflow
Memorystore	Memorystore
Bigtable	Cloud Bigtable
Kafka	Managed Service for Apache Kafka

• Each type supports 1-year and 3-year spend-based CUD terms. Google Cloud CUDs in Commitment Simulator do not include separate payment options.

• Cloud SQL and BigQuery Editions are analyzed per region. Select a region in the Region dropdown before reading the summary table and charts.

Summary table

The summary table compares commitment options for the selected payer, month, and commitment type.

Column	Description
Mode	Term (and, on AWS, payment option). The best option is marked Recommended (green).
Optimal commitment	The $/hr commitment that would have produced the greatest savings for that mode and billing month, based on actual past usage. See Optimal commitment.
Monthly savings	Monthly savings at the optimal commitment point, compared with on-demand (and with Flexsave on AWS when applicable).
Annual savings	Annualized savings (monthly savings × 12).
Upfront cost	One-time payment at purchase (AWS only). See Payment options.
Risk	Risk levels for the commitment term.

AWS summary table

• Each row represents a term and payment combination — for example, Compute 3 Year No Upfront.

• A row for DoiT Flexsave is included when Flexsave for Compute is active.

• The default Recommended option is typically 3 Year No Upfront, except for Database Savings Plans (1 Year No Upfront).

Google Cloud summary table

• Each resource type shows two rows: 1 Year Spend-based CUDs and 3 Year Spend-based CUDs.

• There is no Flexsave row and no Upfront cost column.

• The default Recommended option is the 3-year term.

Payment options

Payment options apply to AWS Savings Plans only:

Payment option	Upfront payment	Best for
No Upfront	$0	Preserving cash flow
Partial Upfront	Half of total commitment cost	Balancing savings with cash flow
All Upfront	Full commitment cost	Maximizing discount when capital is available

Risk levels

Risk	Applies to	Description
No risk	AWS Flexsave	Fully managed by DoiT; no long-term commitment.
Moderate	1-year AWS Savings Plans or Google Cloud CUDs	One year of commitment. Easier to adjust if usage changes.
High	3-year AWS Savings Plans or Google Cloud CUDs	Deeper discounts with a three-year lock-in.

Once purchased:

• AWS Savings Plans cannot be canceled or modified, charge the committed hourly rate regardless of actual usage, and remain in effect for the full term.

• Google Cloud spend-based CUDs are binding for the selected term; review Google Cloud CUD documentation before purchasing.

Analysis charts

Below the summary table, charts plot the full cost curve for each commitment option — how total monthly cost changes as the hourly commitment increases from $0/hr to the point where the commitment costs more than on-demand.

The ideal commitment maximizes covered spend while keeping uncovered and wasted spend as low as possible. In practice, a small amount of uncovered spend is preferable to wasted spend.

AWS charts

For each term and payment option, one chart answers: What would I have paid in the selected month if I had committed $X/hr on a Savings Plan?

Cost metrics

Metric	Description
On-Demand Cost	Baseline monthly cost at full on-demand rates (without Flexsave).
Flexsave Cost	Monthly cost under DoiT Flexsave (visible only if Flexsave is active).
SP Cost	Total monthly cost at a given hourly commitment (SP Covered + SP Uncovered + SP Wasted).
SP Covered Cost	Usage billed at discounted Savings Plan rates within the commitment budget.
SP Uncovered Cost	Usage beyond the commitment budget, billed at on-demand rates.
SP Wasted Cost	Commitment budget with no usage to cover.
Upfront Cost	One-time payment at purchase. See Payment options.

Cost curve

• The X-axis is the hourly commitment; the Y-axis is the total monthly cost.

• Green line: SP Cost — lowest point is the optimal commitment.

• Red dashed line: On-Demand Cost — full on-demand baseline.

• Purple dashed line: Flexsave Cost — visible only if Flexsave is enabled.

• Vertical dashed line: Marks the optimal commitment.

Follow the green line from left to right:

1. At $0/hr, it starts at the on-demand baseline.

2. As commitment increases, the line drops while discounted usage grows.

3. At the vertical dashed line, total cost is lowest.

4. Past that point, additional commitment is mostly wasted.

Chart tooltip

Hovering over any point on a chart reveals the cost breakdown at that hourly commitment:

• Dollar and percentage savings versus on-demand

• Dollar and percentage savings versus Flexsave (if applicable)

• Individual components: SP Covered, SP Uncovered, SP Wasted

Google Cloud charts

For each 1-year and 3-year term, one chart answers: What would I have paid in the selected month if I had committed $X/hr on a spend-based CUD?

Chart labels use CUD terminology (for example, CUD Cost, CUD Covered Cost) instead of SP. The curve mechanics are the same as on AWS:

• Green line: Total monthly commitment cost at each $/hr level.

• Red dashed line: On-Demand Cost baseline.

• There is no Flexsave baseline and no upfront cost in the chart summary.

• Vertical dashed line: Optimal commitment for that term and region (if applicable).

Warning

The optimal commitment shows what would have been best for the selected month. It is not a purchase recommendation.

Usage patterns might change from month to month, and commitments generally cannot be canceled. Committing slightly below the optimal captures most of the savings with much less risk. See Optimal commitment for practical guidance.

Status messages and page states

Commitment Simulator displays a status page instead of the normal analysis when certain conditions apply. Wording references Savings Plans on AWS and Spend-based CUDs on Google Cloud.

State	Condition	What to do
We're compiling your data	Billing data has not been processed yet.	Wait a few hours and check again. The processing is automatic.
Your Savings Plans / Spend-based CUDs are fully optimized	No hourly commitment would reduce costs for the selected payer.	No action needed. Existing commitments already cover eligible usage, or usage is too low for an additional commitment.
No optimal commitments found	For the selected payer and month, no hourly commitment would reduce costs below on-demand pricing.	Try a different month, region (Google Cloud), or payer account. If usage is consistently low, a new commitment may not be cost-effective.