New Simplified Reserved Instances Payment Options for Amazon RDS for SQL Server
You can now take advantage of the new Reserved Instances (RI) payment options on Amazon RDS for SQL Server. This simpler payment-based model consolidates reserved instances into one RI type, while introducing three payment options: No Upfront, Partial Upfront and All Upfront RIs, offering you more flexibility to decide on how you would like to pay for your Reserved Instances.
The No Upfront payment option does not require an upfront payment and provides a substantial discount (typically about 30%) compared to On-Demand. This option is offered with a one-year term. The Partial Upfront payment option balances the payments of an RI between upfront and hourly, and replaces the previous Heavy Utilization RI. You pay for a portion of the Reserved Instances upfront, and then pay for the remainder over the course of the one- or three-year term. This option provides a high discount (typically about 60% for a 3 year term) compared to On-Demand. The All Upfront payment option allows you to pay for the entire Reserved Instances term (one- or three-year) with one upfront payment and benefit from the largest discount (typically about 63% for a 3 year term) compared to On-Demand.
Amazon RDS for SQL Server supports these new payment options in the following regions: US East (Northern Virginia), US West (Oregon), US West (N. California), EU (Ireland), EU (Frankfurt), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Sydney), and South America (Sao Paulo). For more information on these new cost saving options, please visit the RDS pricing page.