ProsperOps announced general availability for Autonomous Discount Management (ADM) for Google Cloud Compute, supporting Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and Cloud Run. This new service allows Google Cloud customers to achieve material savings while minimizing commitment lock-in risk through an automatically managed portfolio of resource-based Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) and spend-based Flexible CUDs.

Google Cloud is one of the fastest growing cloud providers with 28.8% YoY growth in Q2 2024, alongside Azure and AWS. However, more than half of organizations do not leverage discount instruments (e.g., AWS Savings Plans, Azure Reserved Instances, Google Cloud Committed Use Discounts, etc.) to optimize rates and reduce costs, according to the 2024 Flexera State of Cloud Report. This means many organizations are leaving money on the table.

Managing Google Cloud CUDs to reduce compute costs can be a complex, time-consuming task that often results in suboptimal outcomes:

• Tracking and managing complexity: Eligibility for spend-based Flexible CUDs and resource-based CUDs depends on the machine series used, and every combination of region and machine series is priced differently. Other factors, such as private rates and Sustained Use Discounts (SUDs) also need to be considered when managing commitments.
• Overcommitment risks: Spend-based Flexible CUDs are immutable, and resource-based CUDs are purchased for a specific region and machine series. Without a sophisticated optimization strategy, organizations risk overcommitting and wasting spend in the event of a usage decline.
• Suboptimal results: Delays in taking action due to manual processes and reliance on forecasted -rather than real-time - usage data can inhibit organizations from achieving maximum cost reduction.  
  

The need for automation is critical for FinOps teams - not only to alleviate these challenges, but also to scale efficiently and tackle higher-order priorities. ProsperOps Autonomous Discount Management (ADM) for Google Cloud Compute remediates these issues by detecting usage patterns, creating a customized portfolio of Committed Use Discounts (based on factors such as existing commitments, risk tolerance,  etc.) and automatically executing actions to deliver cost savings outcomes, not just recommendations. 

"In 2018, ProsperOps was formally established as the first automated cloud savings tool for AWS. After surpassing $1 billion of AWS Compute Usage Under Management last year, the expansion into Google Cloud was a natural progression with increasing customer demand," said Erik Carlin, co-founder and chief product officer of ProsperOps. "By providing this support to companies whose DevOps and FinOps teams operate in Google Cloud, we can help them optimize their spend - simply and automatically." 

Key benefits with ADM for Google Cloud Compute include: 

• More savings, less risk - ProsperOps continuously optimizes a portfolio of resource-based and spend-based Flexible CUDs to maximize savings. With Adaptive Laddering, its algorithms distribute CUDs to align with usage, increasing coverage while minimizing risk. ProsperOps quickly adjusts and reduces commitment coverage in the event of a usage drop.
• Offload CUD management - ProsperOps frees up time for teams to focus on higher-order FinOps initiatives. It continuously ingests data and analyzes usage to ensure that CUDs provide optimal savings. The system also considers private rates and Sustained-Use Discounts to tailor CUD optimizations. 
• Customize settings - ProsperOps automation operates within constraints set by the user. FinOps teams can control coverage preferences based on their risk tolerance and savings goals to ensure organizations have the flexibility they need.
• Understand outcomes - The ProsperOps console highlights optimization KPIs and trends, including the Effective Savings Rate, spend coverage, savings, commitment burndown schedules, Commitment Lock-In Risk (CLR) and more. 
  

"ProsperOps automation helped us maximize savings while optimizing workloads. Its dynamic algorithms adjust coverage to adapt to usage changes in real-time. Automating Committed Use Discount management allowed us to focus more on rightsizing and other crucial optimization efforts," said Marcus Zhao, SRE manager at Zenni Optical.