Why
Expiring commitments silently revert workloads to on-demand pricing. A $50K/month RI pool expiring next quarter increases effective cost by 30–60% on the affected resources — if nobody tracks this, the forecast misses it entirely. Enterprise discount agreements and marketplace subscriptions have similar cliff-edge effects.
What
Track commitment renewal dates, expiry dates, and enterprise discount agreements and factor them into the planning cycle so rate changes don’t arrive as surprises.
How
Build a Commitment Inventory
Pull all active commitments from each cloud provider:
| Provider | Data Source |
|---|---|
| AWS | Cost Explorer → Reservations → RI/SP inventory |
| Azure | Cost Management → Reservations → Reservation details |
| GCP | Billing Console → Commitments → CUD inventory |
For each commitment, record: type, start date, expiry date, monthly effective cost, on-demand equivalent cost, auto-renew status.
Add to Planning Calendar
Create a commitment calendar that flags expirations 90 days in advance. Include in the quarterly planning summary as rate-change events.
Factor into Forecast
For each expiring commitment: if renewal is planned, no cost impact. If not renewed, the delta between committed rate and on-demand rate is a planned cost increase that must appear in the forecast.
Deliverable Checklist
- Commitment inventory built (all providers)
- Expiry dates flagged 90 days in advance
- Commitment calendar visible to FinOps and Finance
- Rate-change impacts included in planning summary
- Auto-renew settings reviewed and documented