Coverage: The Most Important Metric in Cloud Costs

Cloud cost management is a critical issue for companies utilizing AWS, where coverage, defined as the percentage of cloud resources covered by up-front financial commitments, plays a significant role in cost savings. The text outlines that AWS users often face high costs when relying on on-demand resources, as seen in various industry scenarios such as travel websites, model hubs, and social media sites. These entities can significantly reduce expenses by increasing their coverage through Reserved Instances (RIs) and Savings Plans, though each approach comes with its own challenges. Reserved Instances offer predictable pricing but can become complex due to the variety of instance types and commitment lengths, while Savings Plans provide more flexibility for compute services. Vantage aims to simplify cloud cost management by introducing features like Autopilot, which automates the reservation of instances and the utilization of savings plans, potentially achieving up to 70% savings without requiring infrastructure changes.