All Collections
Archera User Guide
Creating Custom Purchase or Renewal Plans
Creating Custom Purchase or Renewal Plans

How to article describing the process of creating a custom purchase or renewal plan using the Archera Platform

J
Written by Jim Gallagher
Updated over a week ago

In this article we will walk through the process of creating a custom Purchase/Renewal plan. The process is similar for both approaches so we will focus on Purchase Plans for the remainder of this article.

By default on a per segment basis, the Archera platform will automatically generate three plans: Flexible, Balanced, and Savings optimized. However, there may often be times where creating a "Custom" plan may be appropriate, for example:

  • including/excluding specific savings vehicles

  • Specifying specific date ranges for lookback

  • Modifying term lengths

  • etc

To create a Custom Plan, you may either click the "Custom Plan" button or modify one of the existing default plans from the Purchase/Renewal Planner section:

The first step is to come up with a name. It is helpful to include as much pertinent information in the Plan name such as who created it, what date, etc. In this example my custom plan name is "Jim's Plan Jan 1 2022". There are no rules here but being descriptive helps to review later:

The next step is to select the Contract Types, as well as the EC2 Contract Flexiblity. The Contract Types section will allow you to fine tune the contract selection types to include in the overall plan. Only want GRIs? Only looking at Database servers? Select the options that make sense for your use case.

The EC2 Contract Flexibility Slider will allow you to tune the model to bias towards more Reserved Instances on the left hand side, and more Savings Plans towards the right. Don't want any Savings Plans? Slide it all the way left. No RIs? Slide right!

The next section is Selecting the lookback period for generating recommendations. If you want to base your plan on a specific period you can select the date range here. Want to cover as much as possible? Select a shorter, recent period. The default selection is the past 30 days.

Step 4 is to select the Contract Term Blend. This is where you can tune how much of the model will select for 1 or 3 year contract types, or any combination thereof. Typically we see customers selecting one or the other extremes, but tuning this to include both types is possible.

The final step is to select how much Upfront Spend to optimize for in the plan. The Archera platform shows a Pareto Frontier to display possible options. By default the planner will attempt to find a "sweet spot" in the frontier where diminishing returns start to apply. This can help maximize savings while limiting the amount of up front capital expended. Alternatively, you can select a blanket option for all reservations in the plan at the bottom:

After all options have been selected, click "Save" to include the Plan in the "Saved Purchase Plans" section of the Purchase Planner where you can then apply the recommendations.

To further edit the plan on a per line item basis, you can click the "view details" button to see exactly what infrastructure would be covered, for what term length, with what contract type, etc.

Thanks for reading and please reach us at solutions@archera.ai if you have any further questions!

Did this answer your question?