how to create custom plan.md

How to Create a Custom Purchase or Renewal Plan

Creating a custom plan in Archera is your way of tailoring savings to fit your organization's exact infrastructure footprint. Whether you're building a Purchase Plan or a Renewal Plan, the process is nearly identical.

By default, Archera automatically generates three plan options for each segment: Recommended, Balanced, and High Savings. However, there are scenarios where creating a Custom Plan makes more sense, such as:

Creating Your Custom Plan

To create a Custom Plan, click the "Custom Plan" button or modify one of the existing default plans from the Commitment Planner section. You can also create a Renewal Plan from the Commitment Inventory page.

Step 1: Choose Your Custom Plan Type

You'll see three options:

Top-Down Plan — Want to cover everything across your infrastructure? This pulls usage directly from your CUR data and gives a holistic, org-wide view.

Infrastructure Plan — Want to zoom in on specific workloads? Use the search bar to filter by instance type, tags, or resource name, then select what you want to include.

Renewal Plan — Access this from either the Commitment Planner or Commitment Inventory page. Perfect for tracking and renewing upcoming expiring commitments.

Step 2: Name Your Plan

Start by giving your plan a descriptive name. Think about who created it, what it's for, and when you created it. Example: RDF 30 Day GRI (RDS Only)

Step 3: Select Reservable Infrastructure

Head to the Reservable Infrastructure section. Use the search bar to find and select the commitments you want included by name, instance type, or tags. Anything you leave unchecked will be excluded.

Step 4: Adjust the Lookback Period

The system default is 1 day, but you can customize this. Click "Different Range" to slide the lookback window to something that better fits your usage patterns (like 7, 14, or 30 days).

Step 5: Choose Contract Types

By default, all contract types are selected. If you want to narrow your scope (e.g., Standard RIs, Compute Savings Plans, Sagemaker Contracts only), deselect the rest.

Step 6: Choose Contract Terms

Select the terms you need:

Archera GRIs offer more flexibility with shorter terms, easier modifications, and no lock-in.

Step 7: Select Upfront Costs

Choose your preferred upfront structure:

Archera's Recommended and Balanced Plans default to No Upfront, which means you get savings without tying up capital.

Step 8: Optimize for Upfront Spend

Archera visualizes this on a Pareto Frontier, automatically finding the sweet spot where adding more spend doesn't meaningfully increase savings. You can also override this and pick a flat upfront option if preferred.

Step 9: Review and Apply

Click the purple Submit button. This creates and saves your plan in the Draft Plans section of the Commitment Planner but does not trigger a purchase.

Once savings calculations complete, review:

When you're ready, click "Apply Plan" from either the Draft Plans tab or within the plan itself.

Fine-Tuning Your Plan

Click "View Details" to explore per-line-item breakdowns including contract terms, cost type, and coverage by resource.

For additional questions, reach out to solutions@archera.ai.