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AWS Adds More Flexibility to Convertible Reserved Instances
Amazon Web Services (AWS) this week announced more options for its Convertible Reserved Instances, which it launched last year as a flexible, cost-saving alternative to its regular Reserved Instances.
Convertible Reserved Instances, which allow customers to switch between different instance types during the duration of their contracts, initially came in three-year terms only. On Monday, AWS added a new one-year term option.
"This will give you more options and more flexibility; you can now purchase a mix of 1-year and 3-year Convertible Reserved Instances (CRIs) in accord with your needs," said AWS evangelist Jeff Barr in a blog post announcing the change. Barr noted that the the one-year term option should be especially attractive to startups that don't yet have the financial capital to commit to a three-year instance contract.
In addition, besides letting users switch instance types mid-contract, AWS is now letting users exchange or merge their Convertible Reserved Instances. Essentially, a user can exchange some of their current Convertible Reserved Instances for another Convertible Reserved Instance from a different instance family of equivalent or higher value.
An AWS document summarizes the exchange option this way:
When you exchange your Convertible Reserved Instance, the number of instances for your current reservation is exchanged for a number of instances that cover the equal or higher value of the configuration of the target Convertible Reserved Instance. Amazon EC2 calculates the number of Reserved Instances that you can receive as a result of the exchange.
Users can also merge together multiple Convertible Reserved Instances and then initiate an exchange based on the merged instances.