According to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos: “There are two types of companies: those that try to charge more and those that try to charge less. We’ll be second. This quote embodies Amazon’s leadership principles of “How to Generate Ideas for New Things.” initiatives and ways to improve the quality of customer service. These customer experience improvements also come with price reductions, such as the price reduction we announced on May 28, 2022 for the purchase of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) from AWS. Customers can save up to 70% by purchasing SUSE subscriptions from AWS for their SUSE-based deployments using various pricing models such as Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, and Annual Subscriptions. In this blog, we will discuss various savings options when purchasing SUSE subscriptions on AWS.
       SAP has been running on SUSE since 1999. SUSE’s experience in delivering products and services for SAP is the primary reason why SAP customers choose SUSE products when they decide to run SAP workloads on Linux. AWS and SUSE have collaborated since 2010 to help customers build high-performance, flexible, and efficient infrastructure for SAP and a variety of other mission-critical workloads. In addition, thousands of customers have purchased the SUSE Linux operating system from AWS for their SAP workloads.
       SUSE offers two Linux distributions for running SAP workloads (Figure 1): SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications (SLES for SAP), the latter of which is designed specifically for running SAP workloads. The SLES lifecycle for SAP includes extended support for service pack overlays, providing a total of 4.5 years of support. SLES for SAP also provides software components and services such as SAP HANA HA (High Availability) Resource Broker, HA Cluster Connector, SAP HANA-specific security features, simplified operations, and optional antivirus software. Both operating system subscriptions can be purchased from AWS. Let’s look at how to optimize the cost of your SUSE subscription when purchasing on AWS:
       Customers receive significant benefits when purchasing SLES and SLES for SAP products through AWS and the AWS Marketplace.
       As an enterprise customer, you can receive 100% EDP (Enterprise Discount Program) withdrawals when purchasing SLES subscriptions through Amazon EC2. In addition, you will receive 100% EDP withdrawal from SLES for SAP, which is up to 25% of the total EDP liability. The AWS Management Console and AWS Marketplace provide a one-stop interface that allows you to initiate and complete purchases without having to go through multiple vendors. By purchasing SUSE products from AWS, you get a single source of procurement and the ability to manage just one invoice at the end of the month, so you don’t have to manage multiple vendors in your vendor management system.
       From an operational and support perspective, purchasing SUSE subscriptions from AWS ensures that you have the required number of subscriptions for your environment. As part of your migration from on-premises to the AWS cloud, the Bring Your Own Subscription (BYOS) program requires you to manage the number of subscriptions deployed to AWS to ensure software compliance. To learn more about BYOS, read SUSE Cloud Connect. Another benefit is that AWS is a single support path for your AWS products and services, as well as your SLES or SLES for SAP subscription. A single update path speeds the delivery of the support you need during emergencies across SAP and third-party IT environments.
       Additionally, it is important to keep your entire environment up to date with supported patches and packages to avoid vulnerabilities or compliance issues. Your environment will have access to the update infrastructure maintained by SUSE and hosted on AWS as part of your AWS subscription to SLES or SLES for SAP. Regional update servers serve as a repository for downloading security patches, patches, and updates. This updated infrastructure gives your environment immediate access to security and performance patches and helps maintain operational excellence.
       You can run Amazon Machine Images (AMI) SLES to provide on-demand computing resources without any long-term commitment or upfront costs. When you use the SLES AMI to run EC2 instances on demand, the cost of SLES is combined with the cost of compute. Below is an example of pricing for the m6i.4xlarge in the AWS North Virginia (US-East-1) region, which includes the cost of the SLES operating system. You can use the AWS Pricing Calculator to get a similar price estimate. Please note that AWS pricing varies by region, and you may notice that the cost changes over time.
       From May 28, 2022, Savings Plans are offering additional discounts on SLES subscriptions, offering savings of up to 52% over previous SLES Savings Plan rates. SLES subscriptions receive the same discount as RI discounts. Savings plans have a lower total cost than On-Demand plans, but may cost the same or slightly more than Reserved Instances. This is based on the greater discount on the cost of an Amazon EC2 instance for RI compared to the Savings Plan.
       Savings Plans offer you the most flexible discount model, giving you the opportunity to significantly reduce your computing costs and SUSE subscription costs in exchange for a commitment to use a certain amount (measured in USD per hour) over one or three years. SUSE offers the same discounts for both types of savings plans: Compute Savings Plan and EC2 Instance Savings Plan.
       Compute Saving Plans provide maximum flexibility and help reduce costs by up to 66%. These plans automatically apply to the use of EC2 instances regardless of instance family, size, availability zone, region, operating system or lease, and also apply to the use of AWS Fargate or AWS Lambda. For example, with the Compute Savings Plan, you can switch from Amazon EC2 C4 instances to M6i instances at any time, move workloads from Europe (Ireland) to Europe (London), or automatically move workloads from Amazon EC2 to AWS Fargate or AWS Lambda . Pay the cost of the savings plan.
       The EC2 Instance Savings Program offers the lowest prices, saving up to 72% in exchange for one instance family in a region (for example, M5 in Northern Virginia). This automatically reduces the cost of a selected series of instances in that region, regardless of availability zone, size, operating system, or lease. The EC2 Instance Savings Plan gives you the ability to vary the usage of instances in a series within a region. For example, you can upgrade from c5.xlarge running Windows to c5.2xlarge running Linux and automatically benefit from Savings Plan pricing. In Figure 4, we see an example of using the AWS Pricing Calculator to estimate the cost of running an EC2 Instance Savings Plan with an m6i.4xlarge instance type in the AWS Northern Virginia (us-east-1) region.
       Reserved Instances (RI) allow you to purchase Amazon EC2 instances at a discounted price with a SLES subscription fee in exchange for a long-term commitment. You can run your workloads on Reserved Instances with a 1-year or 3-year commitment. SUSE subscriptions can also be included in 1 or 3 year convertible RIs. Below is a screenshot of the AWS Pricing Calculator showing the cost of standard and convertible Reserved Instances for m6i.4xlarge with SLES. Both have a three-year term, use the same m6i.4xlarge instance type, and do not have prepayment options.
       Convertible Reserved Instances cost slightly more than standard Reserved Instances. Convertible reserved instances are more flexible and allow you to change instance family types based on changing computing needs.
       Before we focus on purchasing options for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications, we need to highlight our recommended savings plans (compared to Reserved Instances). Like Reserved Instances, pricing plans offer lower prices. Plus, savings plans give you the flexibility to change usage as your needs change. For example, the Compute Savings Program automatically applies it when migrating from C4 instances to C6g instances, moving workloads from EU (Ireland) to Europe (London), or moving workloads from Amazon EC2 to AWS Fargate or AWS Lambda. Lower prices. .
       There are two ways to purchase SLES for SAP in the console to run SAP workloads on AWS, as shown in Figure. 7.
       Pay as you go (PAYG) is a subscription type for purchasing SLES for SAP on AWS Marketplace. The cost of this subscription is based on an hourly consumption plan. There is no time commitment required to run instances using the PAYG consumption model. You will receive invoices monthly. This is a highly flexible acquisition plan that allows you to provision and deactivate instances as needed. It’s important to note that when purchasing SLES for SAP from AWS in the AWS Marketplace listing, two separate costs are considered: the cost of SLES for SAP software and the cost of an Amazon EC2 instance. Costs for an Amazon EC2 instance and SLES for SAP add up to the total cost. Cost varies depending on the Amazon EC2 instance size selected. You can view software and infrastructure costs by viewing the SLES for SAP listing on AWS Marketplace.
       In Fig. Figure 8 shows an image from the SLES for SAP listing on AWS Marketplace. This graph shows software and infrastructure costs for Amazon EC2 r6i.8xlarge in the AWS Northern Virginia (US-East-1) region.
       Compared to SAP’s pay-as-you-go SLES pricing, annual subscriptions offer a 70% discount in exchange for an upfront payment on a 12-month contract. Keep in mind that when you purchase SLES for SAP from the AWS Marketplace, two separate costs are combined into a total price: an Amazon EC2 instance and the SLES for SAP software. We recommend optimizing your Amazon EC2 instance costs using the Compute Savings Plan or EC2 Instance Savings Plan to maximize your cost savings.
       To purchase an annual subscription, log into the AWS Management Console and go to AWS Marketplace Subscriptions. In the console, select “Manage Subscription” and select “Purchase Annual License” for the appropriate instance. To purchase an annual subscription, you must have a PAYG instance running. The annual subscription will be applied to the instance immediately, no further action is required, and the cost of the annual subscription will be included on your future invoices.
       An annual subscription is a commitment to run SLES for SAP software on an instance type and size. It is important to keep an eye on your annual subscription expiration dates. If you want to change your instance type or size, we recommend that you coordinate your instance type change with your annual subscription end date. This allows you to maximize your annual subscription purchases. Another reason to keep track of the end date of your annual contract is that by default it will revert to pay-as-you-go until you renew your annual commitment.
       Eight months ago you purchased a one-year subscription to SLES for SAP running on r6i.8xlarge. By choosing to use SLES for SAP on the same r6i.8xlarge instance type for one year, you will receive a discount of approximately 70%. If you decide to increase your instance size from r6i.8xlarge to r6i.12xlarge. The SLES for SAP annual subscription you purchased running on r6i.8xlarge does not match the new SLES for SAP instance type, r6i.12xlarge. This means you’ll pay an on-demand price for the new r6i.12xlarge.
       If you decide to upgrade your copy to the r6i.12xlarge, you can still save on the r6i.8xlarge annual subscription. An annual subscription for r6i.8xlarge EC2 instances costs $1,346. SLES software for SAP costs $0.51 per hour per r6i.8xlarge instance. If you run this instance in PAYG mode at an hourly rate for 8 months, you will pay $0.51 per hour for 240 days, which costs approximately $100. The annual subscription costs $2,940, which is more than double the annual subscription price.
       In this blog, we will show you various cost optimization options when purchasing SUSE Linux products from AWS. If you have questions about products and services specific to your account, please contact your AWS Customer Success team for further assistance.
       In addition to your customer success teams and AWS support channels, we recently launched re:Post, an updated Q&A system for the AWS community. Our SAP on AWS Solution Architecture team regularly monitors and answers discussions and questions on SAP on AWS topics to help our customers and partners. If your question is not related to support, please consider joining the re:Post discussion and contributing to the community knowledge base.