What's a flexible Savings Plan?

North offers three-year flexible savings plan credits without the long-term commitment.

Our service applies three-year savings plan pricing to your EC2, Lambda and Fargate usage.

Exact pricing can be viewed in the AWS calculator. Our Savings Plans are three-year, no upfront commitments. Use the AWS calculator or our user-friendly calculator.

More AWS documentation on Compute Savings Plans: https://aws.amazon.com/savingsplans/compute-pricing/

Are you a startup?

Were you founded less than three years ago?

If you answered yes to those questions, chances are you will be eligible for up to $10,000 in AWS credits through North.

Contact us at sales@north.inc with the subject line "Startups Program."

Please note that this program is only available for our Fully Managed service.

About Us:

North is an AWS reseller and discounting automation platform. We allow customers to automate discounting coverage on AWS resources that automatically adjust to their changes in usage and product adoption within the AWS ecosystem.

Data Platform:

North's data platform monitors and measures AWS products being used in your AWS account(s) and suggests savings remediations. These suggestions can be automated through our Autopilot feature or manually triggered through user approval.

Our platform continuously adjusts to changes in your AWS environment, helping reduce cost burden for our users.

Flex Discounting:

North offers the most cost-effective way to buy and manage AWS discounting coverage via Flex.

Flex is a total end-to-end discounting managed service that allows users to buy three-year Compute Savings Plans & Reserved Instances with the option to change commitment levels or broker buyback at any time during your term with North. Our service comes with 100% risk-free assurance that you won't pay for discounting reservations or plans that you no longer need. Simply put, we allow you to consume AWS at the best discounting with month-to-month flexibility.

Customer Experience:

North is proud to provide one of the best customer experiences in the industry. Each account, regardless of their top-line spend with AWS, is assigned a certified FinOps practitioner to ensure long-term financial success. Additionally, your North support team is available 24/7 via Slack. Our teams meet with our customer monthly to discuss goals, budgets, savings and all things related to your business success on AWS.

For customers that prefer to manage and keep their own AWS payer account in place, North offers subscription-based, no up-front payment, Compute Savings Plans & Reserved Instances via Savings Pods.

Savings Pods are individual AWS member accounts that North owns and operates. These accounts can join a customer billing organization via consolidating billing. Customers purchasing a subscription-based Savings Plans or Reserved Instances via Savings Pods should expect to see savings reflected on their consolidated AWS bill each month.

North enables discount sharing, allowing accounts within their consolidated billing group to draw their on-demand usage against the Savings Plans & Reserved Instances shared via Savings Pods.

Should customer no longer need some or all of their reservation, North will partially or entirely disconnect the Savings Pods, converting them back into single-payer accounts. During this process, all monthly costs default to being billed directly to North, relieving any financial obligations from the customer. Disconnection of North member account(s) "Savings Pods", are subject to the terms and conditions of our MSA.

Sample Account architecture of customer ("Groovy Labs") using North Savings Pods.

How secure are North's Member Accounts "Savings Pods" ?

North upkeeps maximum security on our Savings Pods and deploys extremely limited permissions. Through our MSA, we also cover any costs accrued in these accounts outside of the agreed upon savings reservation. For a full security posture review – presented privately and under NDA – please contact us directly.

Can these Savings Pods see or access data from other member accounts in my billing organization?

No. By default, AWS prevents single-member accounts from being able to view, query, access, alter or otherwise impact services in other member accounts in a billing organization.

How does onboarding work? How quickly can we start enjoying discounts from these Savings Pods?

Onboarding can be completed with less than 10 minutes of work. During onboarding, North will share the member accounts "Savings Pods" to invite to your AWS billing organization. Once the invitation is accepted, we create the savings reservations. Within an hour, your on-demand usage will begin to benefit from savings. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_accounts_invites.html

How does account disconnection work?

Accounts can be disconnected from the AWS management account's administrator in your billing organization. Please note that service interruptions will result in any customer usage not being able to access Savings Plans or Reserved Instances in disconnected member account(s). Also please note that service reductions, or cancelations are subject to a handoff window (30-90 days). Read more about terms of services in our MSA.

1. Sign in to AWS management account

2. Click -> AWS Organizations

3. List accounts via hierarchy

4. Select account(s)

5. Actions

6. "Remove from organization"

Additional Links:

Inviting an AWS account(s) to join your organization: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_accounts_invites.html

Removing an AWS account from your organization: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_accounts_remove.html

Create a spending alert on AWS account(s) in your organization: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/monitor_estimated_charges_with_cloudwatch.html

What is Autopilot?

Autopilot allows North to efficiently create and oversee monthly discount reservations, delivering substantial cost savings to your account without requiring significant human intervention.

Our cutting-edge service continually monitors your usage patterns. Whenever an opportunity for savings arises, we take the initiative to secure the reservation on your behalf. That means you can benefit from the savings without risky and unnecessary long-term reservation costs.

All Autopilot-generated savings are fully backed by our Buyback & Flex program and safeguarded by our comprehensive MSA protection.

Autopilot is powered by North's AWS Consolidated Billing practice, allowing customers to elect to have their AWS costs routed to North as their registered AWS reseller. North manages group bought Savings Plans and Reserved Instances at the group layer based on aggregate usage trends. Customers using this service only pay for the exact discounts that they consume in that usage month.

What is consolidated billing?

Consolidated billing is an authorization for your AWS account(s) to join an AWS organization (North), in which North agrees to bill your company for the charges associated to your account each month.

North offers a Fully Managed service which operates its savings program through consolidated billing, allowing customers to consume shared three-year discounting credits with term flexibility.

Can North change anything on our AWS account via consolidated billing?

No. We keep all service controls off by default and allows our customers to audit at any time. Our setup is a standard AWS reseller mechanism that manages and bills customers.

What is discount sharing?

Discount sharing allows customers in a consolidated billing group to share discount reservations and credits. North will make and manage discounting reservations and share them to your AWS account(s). This allows you to achieve the cost benefits of long-term reservation unit pricing without the traditional long-term commitment.

What happens if we don't use all of our reservation in a given month?

If you don't utilize all of your discount credit or reservation, we try to find a home for the underutilized savings . This is done automatically by AWS, and any discount utilization that is consumed by another account, will be billed to the consuming account by percentage of amortized cost value consumed in that month. This results in other clients benefiting from your underutilized savings. North will only bill you based on your actual savings.

Do we have to use consolidated billing to consume your subscription based AWS discounts?

No. Most customers choose to still manage their own billing group, in which case we suggest using our Savings Pods.

Does North manage any policies for my company via consolidated billing?

North only uses organizations for consolidated billing, meaning we won’t be able to centrally apply the advanced management features. You can view which features the organization has enabled by visiting the AWS Organzations console.

Service control policy documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_policies_scps.html?icmpid=docs_orgs_email&ref_=pe_2547550_191713980

What is AWS organization & management accounts? https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_integrate_services_list.html?icmpid=docs_orgs_email&ref_=pe_2547550_191713980

For Customers Looking to Use North For Consolidated Billing Only:

Connecting to Consolidated Billing Group

North supports its customers and managed discounting through AWS consolidated billing. When moving from self-managed billing to partner-consolidated billing, customers must join our consolidating billing pod. Please note this does not apply to our Savings Pods service.

Enabling Discount Sharing for Savings Plans & Reserved Instances

Once your account has joined North, we require customers to enable discount sharing. This feature allows your account to receive discount credits that North makes on your behalf.

Disconnecting From or Deleting Source/Original Payer/Management Account

AWS hierarchy requires all AWS root accounts to have a connection to a payer account. This allows an account's usage to bill to a single paying account. When joining North customers need to disconnect from their payer account and join the North account pod. This is a standard process when joining a consolidated billing organization. Please note that this does not apply to our Savings Pods service.

How can I leave my existing payer account group?

What if my payer account is the same as my AWS root account?

This is also common practice. It simply means that your AWS organization/management account is created by and managed by the same account as your AWS account. In this case, you would need to delete the organization. This would automatically convert your account from a payer account to a standalone AWS account. Please note that this is not required for our Savings Pods service.

Are there security concerns or risk with deleting, changing or leaving an AWS organization?

There is no risk of service change or product usage interruption. In limited cases, an organization will have some security control policies in place that are automatically applied to member accounts. Please confirm this is not the case. Additionally, if your company uses AWS organizations for SSO this would cause a change. Please consult with your technical team and North if this is the case. New customers would need to re-apply any organization level IAM or SCPs to the account level. Please note that this is not required for our Savings Pods service.

AWS Organizations Overview

Whats a flexible Reserved Instance?

North offers managed three-year flexible Reserved Instances without the long term commitment.

Our service applies three-year Reserved Instance credits to your AWS account for the following products administered and managed through our consolidated billing and discounting sharing program.

RDS

About RDS RIs: https://aws.amazon.com/rds/reserved-instances/

ElastiCache

About ElastiCache RIs: https://aws.amazon.com/elasticache/reserved-cache-nodes/

North ElastiCache Policy

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "Statement1",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "elasticache:DescribeReservedCacheNodes",
                "elasticache:DescribeReservedCacheNodesOfferings"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "*"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Describe reserved cache nodes: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonElastiCache/latest/APIReference/API_DescribeReservedCacheNodes.html

Describe reserved cache nodes offerings: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonElastiCache/latest/APIReference/API_DescribeReservedCacheNodesOfferings.html

OpenSearch

About OpenSearch RIs: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/opensearch-service/latest/developerguide/ri.html

North OpenSearch Policy

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "Statement1",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "es:DescribeReservedInstances",
                "es:DescribeReservedInstanceOfferings",
                "es:DescribeReservedElasticsearchInstances",
                "es:DescribeReservedElasticsearchInstanceOfferings"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}

Describe reserved instance offerings: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/opensearch/describe-reserved-instance-offerings.html

Describe reserved instances: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/opensearch/describe-reserved-instances.html

Describe Elasticsearch reserved instances: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/es/describe-reserved-elasticsearch-instances.html

Describe reserved Elasticseacrch instance offerings: https://boto3.amazonaws.com/v1/documentation/api/latest/reference/services/es/paginator/DescribeReservedElasticsearchInstanceOfferings.html

DynamoDB

About DynamoDB reserved capacity: https://aws.amazon.com/dynamodb/reserved-capacity/

Describe reserved capacity: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/iam-policy-prevent-purchase-reserved-capacity.html

Describe reserved capacity: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/iam-policy-prevent-purchase-reserved-capacity.html

North DynamoDB Policy

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "Statement1",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "dynamodb:DescribeReservedCapacityOfferings",
                "dynamodb:DescribeReservedCapacity"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}

Redshift

About Redshift reserved nodes: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/redshift/latest/mgmt/purchase-reserved-node-instance.html

North Redshift IAM Policy

{
	"Version": "2012-10-17",
	"Statement": [
		{
			"Sid": "Statement1",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Action": [
				"redshift:DescribeReservedNodeExchangeStatus",
				"redshift:DescribeReservedNodeOfferings",
				"redshift:DescribeReservedNodes",
				"redshift:DescribeResize",
				"redshift:DescribeStorage"
			],
			"Resource": []
		}
	]
}

Exact pricing estimated can be veiwed in the AWS calculator: https://calculator.aws/#/

Customer Support

Customers can get immediate help and support by contacting their dedicated team via their private Slack channel or by email at support@north.inc

How do I get the engineering hours and account support?

Just contact your North team and we will loop in technical resources to help you manage your AWS account, migrate new workloads over or plan cloud related projects.

We are here to help!