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Have you heard? Amazon Web Services (AWS) has introduced updated program terms that significantly impact managed service providers (MSPs). Under the new rules, MSPs can no longer purchase or share reserved instances (RIs) and savings plans (SPs) across multiple customer accounts within a single-payer hierarchy. This article explores the implications of this policy change, the challenge of manual management at scale and how Spot Eco—a reservation management and optimization solution—can help MSPs automate their RI and SP purchases for maximum savings.
What are the AWS policy changes?
As of June 1, 2025, AWS requires solution providers and distributors to comply with the following rules:
- RIs and SPs can’t be shared between multiple end customers under a single management or payer account
- A program management account can only purchase RIs or SPs for a single end customer (and its affiliates)
- If the program management account supports multiple end customers, its settings must be configured to prevent RI or SP sharing across accounts
This means that the old way of linking multiple customers under one main payer and moving RIs between them to get the best coverage is no longer allowed.
What’s the impact on MSPs?
Many MSPs historically depended on their primary payer structure to consolidate customer usage and manage RIs or SPs collectively. While this arrangement provided significant discounts and a streamlined approach, the new AWS policy forces MSPs to handle their customers’ commitments separately. This split structure can be daunting for many reasons:
- Manual oversight: Managing a dozen RI services individually for hundreds of customer accounts is labor-intensive and prone to error
- Financial risk: One miscalculation can lead to significant under-commitment or overcommitment, negating potential cost savings
- Operational complexity: MSPs that rely on volume discounts must now track coverage at the per-customer level without sharing resources
The complexity of manual management
This manual oversight brings with it several complex issues MSPs must now tackle:
- Scaling issues: Handling hundreds (or thousands) of RIs manually across many accounts consumes significant time and resources
- High risk of errors: Human oversight inevitably leads to mistakes in coverage calculations
- Potential waste: Misaligned commitments often result in unutilized RIs or SPs, causing financial losses instead of saving
Eco’s approach to automation and AI
Eco offers an automated solution that addresses these challenges by establishing a 1:1 connection with each customer account. Here’s what Eco can do:
- Provide individual account coverage: Each customer account has its own dedicated RI/SP management, following the June 2025 AWS policy
- Balance cost savings: Eco finds patterns in usage and uses AI to make sure coverage is as good as possible, up to 95%. This balances cost savings and avoiding overcommitting
- Reduce risk: Through a careful “seeding strategy,” Eco ensures that the risk of purchasing excess capacity is minimal
- Provide AI-human collaboration: Eco works with automation and AI, but it still includes human oversight for strategic decisions, such as how much coverage and when to renew
The MSP’s choice for potential savings
By leveraging Eco, MSPs can continue to offer deeper discounts to their customers without the complexity of manual management. The resulting savings can be allocated in various ways:
- Pass all savings on to customers: MSPs may choose to show full transparency on discounts, thereby strengthening customer relationships and trust
- Share a portion: Some MSPs might retain part of the savings for reinvestment or profitability, while still offering a competitive rate to clients
- Remain competitive: By automating and optimizing individually at scale, MSPs can differentiate themselves from competitors who may have stopped or reduced discounted offerings due to the new policy
Ensuring your MSP practice thrives
With the June 2025 AWS policy changes now in effect, MSPs need a reliable method to manage RIs and SPs on a per-customer basis. Manual oversight for hundreds of accounts isn’t only impractical but also risks substantial financial losses.
Eco provides a streamlined and policy-compliant solution to RI/SP management. With Eco, MSPs can maximize coverage for each customer, minimize waste and remain competitive in a marketplace where effective cost optimization is critical to success. Plus, Eco is fully embedded into Flexera One, giving FinOps practitioners a truly seamless platform experience and turning insights into action.
We’re here to ensure that your MSP practice continues to thrive in this changing AWS landscape. Reach out to us today to explore how Eco can help optimize your customer accounts.
