> ## 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.

# Commitment Optimization

> How Cloud Capital purchases and manages AWS commitments on your behalf — reducing your cloud costs while eliminating commitment risk.

Cloud Capital's Commitment Optimization program manages AWS Reserved Instances and Savings Plans on your behalf. Rather than purchasing commitments directly — and taking on the financial risk if your usage changes — Cloud Capital purchases and holds those commitments, passes through the savings at a guaranteed rate, and absorbs any underutilization risk on your behalf.

The core value exchange: you get the discount benefits of long-term AWS commitments without carrying the exposure. Cloud Capital takes the risk; you keep the savings.

***

## Before You Begin

Financial and legal onboarding must be complete before any commitment is purchased. When this happens depends on your path into Cloud Capital:

**Forecasting customers**
Some Forecasting customers complete the financial and legal steps during the initial sales process — particularly those planning to move into commitment optimization within the next 6–8 months (for example, if existing commitments are expiring, or workloads are being restructured in preparation). If you're unsure whether this has been done, check with your Cloud Capital account team.

**In-Place customers**
If you're joining Cloud Capital specifically for Commitment Optimization, financial onboarding will be completed with your account team before the first commitment is purchased.

In both cases, onboarding is completed with your Cloud Capital account team — through meetings and async follow-up — not through a self-serve form.

<Card title="Financial Onboarding" icon="file-signature" href="/optimization/onboarding">
  Compliance checks, credit assessment, and legal agreements — completed with your account team before the first commitment is purchased.
</Card>

***

## How the Program Works

<Steps>
  <Step title="Assess your spend">
    Cloud Capital analyzes your recent AWS Cost and Usage Report (CUR) data to identify committable spend across your organization — the portion of your usage eligible for Reserved Instance or Savings Plan discounts.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Build a proposal">
    Using your forecast, [business metrics](/forecasting/business-metrics), and [engineering initiatives](/forecasting/initiatives), Cloud Capital generates a structured commitment proposal calibrated to where your spend is heading — not just where it has been. See [Commitment Strategy](/optimization/commitment-strategy) for how proposals are built.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review and approve">
    Every proposed commitment is reviewed with your team before it is purchased. Nothing is bought without your explicit approval.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Purchase and monitor">
    Cloud Capital purchases the approved commitments on your behalf through the dedicated commitment account in your AWS Organization, and monitors utilization continuously. Coverage is built incrementally through a ladder approach — see [Commitment Proposal & Onboarding](/optimization/commitment-proposal-onboarding) for the full ladder and review cadence.
  </Step>
</Steps>

***

## Key Concepts

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Guaranteed Savings Rate" icon="shield-check" href="/optimization/guaranteed-savings-rate">
    Every commitment carries a contractually guaranteed minimum savings rate. You know the discount before you approve the purchase.
  </Card>

  <Card title="AWS Savings Plans & RIs" icon="aws" href="/optimization/savings-plans-and-reserved-instances">
    New to commitment types? A plain-language explanation of how Savings Plans and Reserved Instances work.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Commitment Strategy" icon="chart-line" href="/optimization/commitment-strategy">
    How Cloud Capital builds commitment proposals using your forecast, business metrics, and engineering initiatives.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Commitment Setup" icon="circle-check" href="/optimization/commitment-setup">
    When you're ready to start, what Cloud Capital needs, and how the initial commitment plan is structured.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Technical Authorization" icon="key" href="/optimization/cloud-provider-account">
    The AWS account and IAM role setup that allows Cloud Capital to purchase commitments on your behalf.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Savings Realisation" icon="coins" href="/optimization/savings-realisation">
    How to track the savings being generated — your ESR, utilization, and commitment performance over time.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

## Questions?

See the [Commitments FAQ](/optimization/commitments-faq) for answers to common questions about risk, billing, pre-existing commitments, and what happens if your cloud spend changes.