In this tutorial, you calculate a spending commitment based on the traffic volume that Enterprise Edition transit routers process, purchase a savings plan, and view its usage. Savings plans for transit routers are suitable for workloads with stable traffic, small traffic-peak variations, and long-term resource use.
Calculate the spending commitment
To select an appropriate traffic volume, observe the trend of the traffic volume that Enterprise Edition transit routers process. Then, calculate the spending commitment from that volume. If the spending commitment that you calculate is not an integer, round it up or down based on the traffic-volume trend.
The unit prices and discounts in the following examples are for reference only. The pricing and discount information on the buy page shall prevail.
For easier calculation, numbers are rounded up or down to two decimal places. The results on the buy page shall prevail.
For example, a company creates an Enterprise Edition transit router in each of the China (Hangzhou), China (Shenzhen), and China (Zhangjiakou) regions, and each router processes traffic. The following figure shows the trend of the traffic volume that the company's Enterprise Edition transit routers processed over the most recent seven days. The traffic volume displayed for each committed consumption cycle, assuming that the cycle is one hour, is the sum of the traffic volumes processed by the three Enterprise Edition transit routers during that cycle.
The traffic-volume trend shows that the company's three Enterprise Edition transit routers need to process at least 250 GB of traffic during each committed consumption cycle. Therefore, the savings plan needs to offset traffic processing fees for at least 250 GB of traffic during each committed consumption cycle. Assume that the company selects 100% Upfront when purchasing the savings plan:
The minimum spending commitment for each committed consumption cycle is 250 GB × USD 0.02/GB × 0.612 = USD 3.06. Because only integers are supported for the spending commitment, use USD 3 in this example.
The savings plan is expected to offset traffic processing fees for 245.10 GB during each committed consumption cycle: USD 3 ÷ 0.612 ÷ USD 0.02/GB = 245.10 GB.
For example, if the spending commitment in the preceding formula is rounded up to USD 4, it offsets traffic processing fees for 326.80 GB during each committed consumption cycle: USD 4 ÷ 0.612 ÷ USD 0.02/GB = 326.80 GB. The preceding figure shows that the traffic volume in most committed consumption cycles is less than 270 GB, which is closer to the traffic volume that USD 3 can offset. Rounding the value up to USD 4 would cause waste. Therefore, this example rounds the spending commitment down to USD 3.
The company can save at least 245.10 GB × USD 0.02/GB - USD 3 = USD 1.90 during each committed consumption cycle.
Assume that the company's Enterprise Edition transit routers process a total of 44,239 GB of traffic in seven days. Use this seven-day traffic volume as a sample of the company's traffic volume for one year, and assume that one year has 365 days.
In one year, the savings plan can help the company save at least USD 1.90 × 24 hours/day × 365 days = USD 16,644.
In one year, without the savings plan, the company would pay a traffic processing fee bill of 44,239 GB × USD 0.02/GB × (365 days ÷ 7) = USD 46,134.96.
The percentage of traffic processing fee costs that the savings plan is expected to save in one year is USD 16,644 ÷ USD 46,134.96 = 36.07%.
In summary, the savings plan is expected to help the company save approximately 36.07% of traffic processing fee costs in one year.
Purchase a savings plan
Log on to the CEN console.
In the left-side navigation pane, click Savings Plans.
On the Savings Plans page, click Buy Now.
On the Savings Plan for Transit Router page, configure the following settings, click Buy Now, and complete the payment.
Configuration item | Description |
Savings Plan Type | Default value: General-purpose. |
Spending commitment | Enter the spending commitment for each committed consumption cycle. Minimum value: USD 1. Only integers are supported. |
Installment Payment | Select the payment type for the savings plan. Valid values: - 0% Upfront: You do not need to pay when you purchase the savings plan for a transit router. You are billed and charged during each committed consumption cycle until the savings plan expires. - 100% Upfront: Pay the total cost of the savings plan for a transit router in a single payment. The savings plan offsets a specified amount of traffic processing fees during each committed consumption cycle until it expires. |
Duration | Default value: 1 year. |
Committed Consumption Cycle | Default value: By Hour. |
Effective Time | Select when the savings plan for a transit router takes effect. - Immediately Take Effect: The savings plan for a transit router takes effect at the earliest in the next committed consumption cycle. For example, if you purchase a savings plan that takes effect immediately at 2023-06-29 13:45, it takes effect at the earliest at 2023-06-29 14:00. - Take Effect at a Specified Time (By Hour) |
After you purchase a savings plan, you can view the savings plan and its usage on the Savings Plans overview page. For details, see View the effects of a savings plan.
View the effects of a savings plan
Go to the Savings Plans overview page to view your purchased savings plans and their usage. The page provides the Usage details, Utilization overview, and Coverage overview tabs, where you can view the effects of savings plan offsets by bill details, utilization rate, and coverage rate.
Usage details
The Usage details tab displays detailed records of bills offset by savings plans. It includes the following fields:
Field | Description |
Savings plan owner account | The Alibaba Cloud account that owns the savings plan. |
Savings plan instance ID | The instance ID of the savings plan. |
Start and end time of the offset bill | The start and end time of the bill offset by the savings plan. |
Savings plan product name | The product name of the savings plan. |
Savings plan type | The type of the savings plan. |
Billing item | The billing item that is offset. |
Offset amount | The actual amount offset by the savings plan. |
List price of the offset portion | The fee calculated at the list price for the offset portion. |
Billing cycle | The billing cycle to which the bill belongs. |
Total list price of the offset bill | The total list price of the offset bill. |
Bill offset rate | The proportion of the offset amount to the offset bill amount. |
Owner account of the offset resource | The Alibaba Cloud account that owns the offset resource. |
Offset product | The product name that is offset. |
Offset resource instance ID | The instance ID of the offset resource. |
Offset instance family | The instance family of the offset instance. |
Offset instance type | The instance type of the offset instance. |
Offset instance region | The region in which the offset instance resides. |
Offset discount | The offset discount provided by the savings plan. |
Utilization overview
The Utilization overview tab displays savings plan utilization and savings. It includes the following fields:
Field | Description |
Account | The Alibaba Cloud account that owns the resource. |
Resource instance ID | The instance ID of the resource. |
Statistical period | The statistical period of the data. |
Current status | The current status of the savings plan. |
Type | The type of the savings plan. |
Region | The region in which the resource resides. |
Instance family | The instance family of the resource. |
Offset amount | The amount already offset by the savings plan. |
Total savings plan amount | The total amount of the savings plan. |
Standard pay-as-you-go fee | The standard fee for pay-as-you-go billing. |
Cumulative savings | The cumulative amount saved. |
Utilization rate | The utilization rate of the savings plan. |
Coverage overview
The Coverage overview tab displays savings plan coverage for pay-as-you-go resources. It includes the following fields:
Field | Description |
Account | The Alibaba Cloud account that owns the resource. |
Owner account | The owner account of the resource. |
Pay-as-you-go instance ID | The instance ID of the pay-as-you-go resource. |
Statistical period | The statistical period of the data. |
Product details | The detailed category of the product. |
Region | The region in which the resource resides. |
Specification | The specification of the resource. |
Coverage rate | The coverage rate of the savings plan for pay-as-you-go resources. |
Offset amount | The amount already offset by the savings plan. |
Total expenditure | The total expenditure for pay-as-you-go billing. |
Standard pay-as-you-go fee | The standard fee for pay-as-you-go billing. |
Export savings plan data
In the upper-right corner of the table on the Usage details, Utilization overview, or Coverage overview tab, click
.On the Export records page, wait for the Download button to appear in the Action column, and then click Download to export the Excel file to your local device.