Cloud Commitment Management for Technical and Customer Teams
Time: ≤30 minutes | Audience: Solutions Architects, Account Managers, Customer Success at MSPs
Module 1: Rate Optimization in the FinOps Framework
Learning objective: Place Archera within the broader FinOps landscape.
Key concepts:
FinOps is the practice of bringing financial accountability to cloud spending through cross-functional collaboration (Engineering, Finance, Business)
Two levers: Rate optimization (what you pay) and Usage optimization (how much you use)
Rate optimization operates at the billing/metering layer — no engineering involvement required
Archera is a rate optimization platform — this distinction matters when positioning to customers with active engineering optimization programs (they're complementary, not competitive)
The Effective Savings Rate (ESR) = discount realized / potential discount available. This is the KPI Archera helps improve.
Key message: Archera doesn't compete with right-sizing tools.
Module 2: How Insured Commitments Work — The Mechanics
Learning objective: Understand the mechanics well enough to explain and manage Archera for a customer.
How it actually works (under the hood)
Archera analyzes customer cost and usage data
Archera recommends an optimal commitment plan
Customer approves; Archera purchases 1- or 3-year commitments in the customer's account
Archera overlays the moneyback guarantee with its own Archera term (30 days or 1 year)
If the customer's usage drops and the commitment goes underutilized after the Archera term, Archera bears the cost
The guarantee mechanism (varies by cloud and commitment type)
Marketplace Transfer (Azure): Archera facilitates transfer of the commitment via marketplace
Billing Transfer (AWS): For commitments isolated to a single account with no running infrastructure, the remaining payment obligation transfers to Archera (AWS only)
Refund (AWS, Azure, & GCP): Archera refunds the cost of the underutilized commitment — either as a credit toward future Archera premiums (default) or via wire transfer. This refund is issued by Archera directly and does not appear on the cloud invoice.
Term structure
30-day insured term → 35 months of flexible coverage after
1-year insured term → 24 months of flexible coverage after
Customer does NOT need to take action after the lock-in period unless they want to exercise the guarantee
Premium model
Premium charged only on Insured Commitments — the ones Archera is guaranteeing
Native cloud commitments Archera manages are free
Premium reflects the risk Archera is taking on (shorter term = higher premium, longer term = lower premium)
Multi-cloud coverage
AWS: EC2, RDS, Lambda, Fargate, SageMaker, ECS, EKS, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, OpenSearch, Redshift (GRIs and GSPs)
Azure: Virtual Machines, SQL DB, Cosmos DB, AKS, Azure OpenAI, and many more (GRIs and GSPs)
GCP: Compute Engine (GCUDs)
Module 3: Deployment and Setup
Learning objective: Know how to onboard a customer and what permissions are involved.
Deployment overview:
AWS/GCP: IAM role created in customer account
Azure: Enterprise App registration in customer's Azure tenant
Two deployment modes:
Visibility Role: Read-only; unlocks cost visibility and forecasting (free forever)
Commitment Management Role: Enables Archera to purchase and manage commitments on customer's behalf
What Archera can and cannot do:
✅ Read cost and usage data
✅ Purchase and manage commitments
✅ Create cost and usage reports/exports
❌ Cannot modify running infrastructure
❌ Cannot impact applications
❌ Does not take over billing or become a reseller
Onboarding time: ~5 minutes. Dashboard available in 24 hours (AWS) or 48 hours (Azure/GCP).
Key prerequisite: AWS requires the Management Account. If the customer doesn't have one, they'll need to enable AWS Organizations first.
Under a reseller's consolidated billing? Usually still works. Most reseller configurations are supported including TD Synnex & Ingram Micro.
Module 4: Using Archera as a Customer Relationship Tool
Learning objective: Understand how to use Archera to build trust, demonstrate value, and protect net retention.
For SAs — running the platform:
Archera's recommendation engine analyzes usage data and produces a commitment plan
Review recommendations with the customer before purchasing — they always have final approval
Set up automation rules for recurring purchases once the customer is comfortable
Monitor commitment utilization in the dashboard (note: data is delayed ~1.5 days, a cloud provider limitation) or set up notifications for underutilization
Use segments to organize commitment strategy by instance type, family, region, tag key/value pais, etc.
For AMs and CS — the retention and expansion motion:
In QBRs & Meetings:
Lead with savings realized: "Since we deployed Archera, you've saved $X on cloud commitments"
Show coverage improvement: "Your Effective Savings Rate moved from X% to Y%"
Use the moneyback guarantee as proof of customer protection: "If anything changes in your infrastructure, you're covered"
Flag optimization opportunities: services or accounts with low commitment coverage
Building trust:
The moneyback guarantee is a tangible proof point that your partnership protects them, not just optimizes them
Customers who see regular savings reporting stay — they have a quantified reason to keep the engagement
No infrastructure changes = no risk of "you broke something" conversations
Expansion signals:
New AWS accounts or Azure subscriptions being added → new commitment coverage opportunity
Workload migration completing → time to commit the newly stable infrastructure
Growth in spend in specific services → higher commitment coverage possible
Every month Archera is saving a customer money, that's a number on a slide in your QBR.
Module 5: Objection Handling
Learning objective: Handle the five most common objections with confidence.
"How does Archera make money if the commitment goes unused?"
Insurance model — Archera charges a premium for taking on the risk. Like any insurer, they price it so most commitments are used, but when they're not, they honor the guarantee.
"Doesn't this encourage wasteful over-committing?"
No — Archera's recommendations are based on actual usage data. And the guarantee removes the downside of being wrong. The result is actually better commitment hygiene.
"We have a PPA/EDP — does this still work?"
Usually yes. The exception is if the customer has a shortfall clause in their agreement — committing more could make that worse. Otherwise, Insured Commitments complement existing agreements.
"How does billing look?"
Two line items: the commitment itself (same as any native commitment) and a separate Archera premium. If the guarantee is exercised, Archera refunds the unused commitment cost — either as a credit toward future Archera premiums (default) or via wire transfer. This refund does not appear on your cloud invoice.
"Does this require any infrastructure or code changes?"
Zero. Archera operates entirely at the billing/commitment layer. Your engineering team never needs to touch anything.
Module 6: Putting It Together
Learning objective: Know when to recommend which product and how to position Archera in a broader solution.
Decision framework:
How to introduce Archera in an active customer engagement
Start with visibility role (free, no commitment) — let the data do the talking
Run the recommendation engine and show the potential savings
Start with one or two commitments to build confidence
Expand coverage over time as trust builds
Ready for the quiz?
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