> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cloudcapital.co/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Glossary

> Definitions of key terms used throughout Cloud Capital's customer documentation.

This glossary defines key terms used across Cloud Capital's customer documentation. For context on how these terms relate to the onboarding process, refer to the [Commitment Proposal & Onboarding Process](/optimization/commitment-proposal-onboarding) page.

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<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="AWS Cost and Usage Report (CUR)">
    A detailed billing data file provided by AWS that records every metered resource charge, hour by hour. Cloud Capital uses CUR data as the primary source of truth when analyzing a customer's historical spend and building commitment proposals. The current version is CUR 2.0; some exports may still use the older 1.0 format. Cloud Capital prefers CUR 2.0, as it provides more complete cost information and is the current AWS standard.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Business Metrics">
    Customer-provided operational data points — such as headcount, transaction volumes, active users, or seasonal patterns — that Cloud Capital uses to improve the accuracy of the spend forecast. Incorporating business metrics allows commitments to reflect anticipated changes in the business, not just historical trends.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Cloud Discount">
    A discount applied by Cloud Capital to a customer's standard AWS usage charges, passed through as a separate line item on the monthly Cloud Capital invoice. Cloud Discount applies to all standard AWS usage — AWS Marketplace charges and AWS Support costs are excluded. The discount rate is determined during the savings assessment and forms part of the overall Cloud Capital value proposition alongside commitment savings.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Committable Spend">
    The portion of a customer's AWS spend that is eligible to be covered by a savings commitment such as a Compute Savings Plan, Database Savings Plan, or Reserved Instance. Not all spend is committable — services like data transfer or support are excluded.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Commitment Ladder (Ladder-Up)">
    Cloud Capital's structured approach to building commitment coverage in four incremental steps rather than all at once. Each step covers approximately 50% of the remaining uncommitted spend, allowing the forecast to be refined between steps and giving the customer full visibility into each commitment before it is purchased.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Compute Savings Plan">
    An AWS commitment to a consistent hourly spend on compute usage (EC2, Fargate, Lambda) in exchange for a discount of up to 66% compared to On-Demand pricing. Available in 1-year and 3-year terms. Cloud Capital uses these as the primary commitment vehicle for general compute workloads. Compute Savings Plans apply to usage across Amazon EC2, AWS Lambda, and AWS Fargate.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Cost Layer">
    A named category that AWS spend is mapped to within Cloud Capital. Every dollar of cloud spend flows into a Cost Layer, and the resulting structure becomes the foundation for forecasting, savings analysis, and commitment proposals. The default top-level layers are Production (COGS) and Non-Production (OpEx), with optional sub-layers for more granular visibility by product, team, region, or service family. See also: [Production (COGS)](#production-cogs) and [Non-Production (OpEx)](#non-production-opex).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Database Savings Plan">
    An AWS commitment to a consistent hourly spend on eligible database services (RDS, Aurora) in exchange for discounts of up to 60% compared to On-Demand pricing. Available in 1-year terms. Cloud Capital proposes these alongside Compute Savings Plans for customers with significant database workloads.

    Database Savings Plans provide coverage across Amazon Aurora, Amazon RDS, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon ElastiCache, Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility), Amazon Neptune, Amazon Keyspaces (for Apache Cassandra), Amazon Timestream, AWS Database Migration Service (DMS), and Amazon OpenSearch Service. As new database services become eligible, they will automatically be included in coverage for your existing Database Savings Plans commitments.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Effective Savings Rate (ESR)">
    The primary metric Cloud Capital uses to measure the efficiency of cloud spend optimisation. Calculated as Total Savings ÷ Total On-Demand Cost, expressed as a percentage. An ESR of 8% means that for every dollar of on-demand-equivalent spend, you save \$0.08. The ESR reflects Cloud Capital's direct contribution (commitments and Cloud Discount) and is tracked over time on the Savings page.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Enterprise Discount Program (EDP)">
    An AWS commercial agreement that offers custom pricing in exchange for a committed annual spend level over a multi-year term. Organisations with an active EDP may use Cloud Capital's In-Place Commitment Management while their agreement runs, with a planned transition to full Cloud Capital once the EDP expires or when they are ready to move.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Forecast">
    Cloud Capital's projection of a customer's future AWS spend, derived from historical CUR data and refined over time by incorporating customer-provided business metrics and upcoming initiatives. The forecast directly informs the size and term mix of each ladder step.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Guaranteed Savings Rate (GSR)">
    A contractual commitment from Cloud Capital that guarantees a customer a minimum level of savings relative to On-Demand AWS pricing. The GSR ensures that customers benefit from long-term commitment discounts while Cloud Capital absorbs the financial risk of holding those commitments. This is a key differentiator of the Cloud Capital service model.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="In-Place Commitment Management">
    A Cloud Capital product option for organisations with an existing AWS Enterprise Discount Program (EDP), Private Pricing Agreement (PPA), or Managed Service Provider (MSP) agreement they want to retain or run down to expiry. Cloud Capital manages commitments within the existing AWS structure rather than replacing it, and a transition path to full Cloud Capital is planned for when the agreement expires or when the customer is ready to move.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Initiative">
    A known upcoming change to a customer's AWS environment, such as a new product launch, a platform migration, or a planned decommission. Initiatives are factored into the forecast during ladder-up so that commitment levels account for expected future changes rather than relying solely on past spend.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Managed Service Provider (MSP)">
    An AWS Partner Network member that manages cloud infrastructure on behalf of customers under an AWS-recognised MSP agreement. Organisations with an active MSP arrangement may use Cloud Capital's In-Place Commitment Management while that agreement is in place, with a path to full Cloud Capital when ready.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Monthly Review">
    The ongoing review cadence that replaces weekly meetings once the customer's initial commitment ladder is complete. Monthly reviews focus on commitment performance, forecast updates, and identification of new optimization opportunities as the customer's environment evolves.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Non-Production (OpEx)">
    One of the default top-level Cost Layers in Cloud Capital. Covers infrastructure used for development, staging, testing, and internal tooling — Operating Expenditure in financial terms. Non-Production spend is necessary business cost but is not directly tied to serving customers, and is treated differently from Production (COGS) in financial reporting and margin analysis.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="On-Demand Pricing">
    The standard AWS pricing model in which customers pay for compute or database resources by the hour or second with no long-term commitment. Savings Plans and Reserved Instances provide discounts relative to On-Demand rates.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Private Pricing Agreement (PPA)">
    An AWS negotiated pricing arrangement for customers with significant spend, offering custom discounts outside standard AWS rate cards. Organisations with an active PPA may use Cloud Capital's In-Place Commitment Management while their agreement runs, with a transition path to full Cloud Capital once the PPA expires.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Production (COGS)">
    One of the default top-level Cost Layers in Cloud Capital. Covers infrastructure that directly supports a live product or service — Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) in financial terms. Production spend scales with revenue and is treated as a direct cost of delivery in financial reporting, making it distinct from Non-Production (OpEx) for margin analysis and budgeting.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Projection Type">
    The forecasting methodology applied to a Cost Layer, determining how Cloud Capital projects future spend for that layer. Four options are available: **Trend** (extrapolates historical trajectory), **Fixed Percentage** (applies a specified growth rate per period), **Flat** (holds spend level with most recent actuals — the default), and **Metric - Auto** (drives the forecast from a correlated Business Metric). Projection types can be set independently per Cost Layer and inherited by child layers.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Quarterly Business Review (QBR) / Management Business Review (MBR)">
    A 45–60 minute structured review between a customer and the Cloud Capital team, covering savings performance, forecast accuracy, business updates, and planning for the period ahead. Run at least quarterly for commitment customers, and also triggered by events such as a new stakeholder joining or a significant change in business trajectory. See [Business Reviews (QBR / MBR)](/optimization/qbr) for full details.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Reserved Instance (RI)">
    An AWS commitment to a specific instance type, region, and optionally a specific Availability Zone, in exchange for a discount compared to On-Demand pricing. RIs can offer deeper discounts than Savings Plans for predictable, stable workloads but are less flexible. Cloud Capital monitors RI utilization and proposes replacements or conversions as usage patterns evolve.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Risk Transfer">
    The structural arrangement by which Cloud Capital absorbs the financial risk of AWS commitments on the customer's behalf. The commitments themselves are held by Cloud Capital, but the customer does not bear the financial exposure if their usage decreases or shifts. This is paired with the Guaranteed Savings Rate to give customers both certainty and protection.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Savings Plan">
    An umbrella term covering both Compute Savings Plans and Database Savings Plans — AWS's flexible commitment model where customers commit to a minimum hourly spend rather than a specific resource type. See individual entries for Compute Savings Plan and Database Savings Plan.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Term (1-Year / 3-Year)">
    The duration of an AWS commitment. 1-year terms offer more flexibility with moderate discounts; 3-year terms deliver the deepest discounts but require a longer commitment horizon. Cloud Capital recommends a mix based on each customer's risk tolerance, forecast confidence, and savings objectives.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Utilization">
    The degree to which a purchased commitment (Savings Plan or Reserved Instance) is being consumed by actual AWS usage. Cloud Capital monitors utilization continuously to ensure commitments remain fully used and to flag any coverage gaps or over-commitment that should be addressed.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Weekly Savings Review">
    A regular meeting held between Cloud Capital and the customer during the ladder-up phase. Each session reviews the current forecast, approves or adjusts the next commitment step, and incorporates any new business information. Once the ladder-up is complete, the cadence transitions to monthly reviews.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Workload Optimization">
    A category of cloud cost reduction focused on running infrastructure more efficiently — right-sizing compute resources, reducing idle capacity, and tuning applications to consume less CPU, memory, and storage. Workload optimization operates at the application and cluster level and is complementary to commitment optimization (Cloud Capital's focus). Specialist AWS Partner Network vendors focus on this area.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

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<Note>
  Terms and definitions may be updated as Cloud Capital's service offering evolves. For questions, contact your Cloud Capital account manager.
</Note>