Answer each question to get a recommendation.
| DIMENSION | RESERVED INSTANCE | SAVINGS PLAN | EDGE |
|---|
Most mature Azure environments use a layered approach — not exclusively one or the other.
LAYER 1 — STABLE FLOOR
40–60% of base compute
Reserved Instances
Cover known, long-lived workloads pinned to specific SKUs and regions. Domain controllers, SQL clusters, core app servers. Maximum discount.
LAYER 2 — FLEXIBLE MIDDLE
20–40% of base compute
Savings Plan
Cover compute that's significant but shifting — dev/test, scaling tiers, multi-service workloads, teams in growth mode.
LAYER 3 — ELASTIC TOP
10–30% of peak compute
Pay-as-you-go + Spot VMs
Burst capacity, batch jobs, CI/CD runners, ephemeral workloads. No commitment needed — use Spot VMs for up to 90% savings on interruptible work.
Gov Cloud note: In Azure Government regions (IL4/IL5), workloads are inherently pinned to specific regions with limited migration options. This makes Reserved Instances especially attractive for the stable floor layer, since the region-lock trade-off is already a given.