Usage.ai Glossary

Explore the Usage.ai Cloud FinOps glossary. Learn the basic terms from A to Z that every FinOps team should know, and start your FinOps journey!

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

a

AI for Cloud Cost Optimization

AI for cloud cost optimization uses machine learning to analyze cloud usage patterns, predict demand, and automatically manage commitment-based discounts to maximize savings.

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Amazon EC2

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is AWS's on-demand virtual server service, providing resizable compute capacity in the cloud and representing the largest share of AWS spend for most companies.

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Amazon RDS

Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service) is a managed AWS service that runs relational databases in the cloud without requiring you to manage the underlying server infrastructure.

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Anomaly Detection (Cloud Cost)

Cloud cost anomaly detection automatically identifies unexpected spending spikes that deviate from historical usage patterns, enabling teams to catch billing errors and misconfigurations early.

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Autonomous Cloud Management

Autonomous cloud management is the use of software to continuously monitor, purchase, and adjust cloud cost commitments across AWS, GCP, and Azure without requiring manual human intervention.

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Autopilot Mode (Cloud)

A fully autonomous operating mode that purchases and adjusts cloud commitments daily without requiring human approval, keeping coverage optimized as usage changes.

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AWS Budgets

AWS Budgets is a cost management service that lets organizations set custom spend, usage, and RI/Savings Plan coverage thresholds and receive automated alerts when costs approach those limits.

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AWS Compute Savings Plan

An AWS Compute Savings Plan is a flexible pricing model that saves up to 66% vs on-demand rates in exchange for a commitment to a consistent hourly compute spend over one or three years.

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AWS Cost Allocation Tags

AWS Cost Allocation Tags are key-value labels applied to AWS resources that enable organizations to categorize, track, and report cloud spend by team, project, product, or environment.

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AWS Database Savings Plans

AWS Database Savings Plans are a flexible commitment-based pricing model from Amazon Web Services that reduces costs on managed database services in exchange for a consistent hourly spend pledge over one or three years.

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AWS Reserved Instances

AWS Reserved Instances (RIs) are a commitment-based pricing model that lets you reserve capacity for AWS services in exchange for discounts of up to 72% compared to on-demand rates.

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AWS Savings Plans

AWS Savings Plans offer up to 66% discounts on compute usage in exchange for a consistent hourly spend commitment over 1 or 3 years, with more flexibility than Reserved Instances across instance families.

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AWS Spot Instances

AWS Spot Instances are spare EC2 compute capacity available at a discount versus on-demand pricing, but can be reclaimed by AWS with two minutes of notice when that capacity is needed elsewhere.

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Azure Cost Management

Azure Cost Management is Microsoft's native toolset for tracking, analyzing, and reducing spend across Azure subscriptions, resource groups, and services.

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Azure Reservations

Azure Reservations are pre-purchase commitments for Azure resources that reduce costs by up to 72% compared to on-demand pricing in exchange for a 1-year or 3-year term.

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Azure Reserved VM Instances

Azure Reserved VM Instances are a Microsoft Azure pricing commitment that lets you reserve virtual machine capacity for 1 or 3 years in exchange for discounts of up to 72% compared to on-demand rates.

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Azure Savings Plans

Azure Savings Plans are Microsoft's commitment-based discount program that reduces compute costs by up to 65% vs on-demand pricing in exchange for a consistent hourly spend commitment.

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