Committed use discounts

This page describes how committed use discounts work with Google Cloud VMware Engine.

What are VMware Engine committed use discounts?

Committed use discounts (CUDs) for VMware Engine provide deeply-discounted prices in exchange for committing to continuously use VMware Engine nodes in a particular region for a one- or three-year term.

VMware Engine CUDs are ideal for workloads with predictable resource needs. You commit to a consistent amount of usage, measured in $/hour of equivalent on-demand spend, for a one- or three-year term. In exchange, you receive a discounted rate on the applicable usage your commitment covers.

VMware Engine CUD Agreement type

VMware Engine gives you the following pricing for node types:

  • Fully licensed: Includes VMware Engine nodes with VMware Cloud Foundations licenses for the capacity of the node and the VMware components.

  • Fully licensed convertible commitment: Includes VMware Engine with VMware Cloud Foundations licenses for the capacity of the node and the VMware components. This offers the flexibility of CUD conversion. Reach out to your sales team for details on the conversion of CUDs.

  • Portable License: Includes only VMware Engine nodes. Requires you to bring your portable VMware Cloud Foundations license for the capacity of node and the components to consume VMware Engine nodes.

  • Legacy License: All commitments purchased prior to Jul 25 2024 are considered to be legacy. These CUDs will continue to remain valid until their expiry dates.

CUD Analysis is not supported for the following Agreement types: Fully licensed, Fully licensed convertible commitment and Portable License commitments.

CUD analysis for upfront Legacy CUDs is not supported and recommendations provided should be ignored.

See VMware Engine pricing for examples of pricing that include CUDs.

How do CUDs apply to VMware Engine usage?

CUDs automatically apply to aggregate VMware Engine node usage in a region, giving you low, predictable costs, without the need to make any manual changes or updates yourself. This flexibility saves you time and helps you to save more by achieving high utilization rates across your commitments.

VMware Engine CUDs apply to all VMware Engine nodes for the region for which you have purchased commitments. VMware Engine CUDs do not apply to storage, backups, IP Addresses, network outbound data transfer, or licensing.

Purchasing VMware Engine commitments

To learn more about purchasing spend-based commitments, see the Google Cloud Committed use discounts page.

You can purchase CUDs from any Cloud Billing account, and the discount applies to any eligible usage in projects paid for by that Cloud Billing account. Any overage is charged at the on-demand rate. Before you purchase a commitment, read the Service specific terms regarding Committed Units.

When you purchase a VMware Engine CUD, you pay the same commitment fee for the entirety of the commitment term, even if the price of applicable usage changes. You still receive the same discount percentage on applicable usage in the event of a price change. The commitment fee is billed monthly or upfront, depending on the type of CUD.

Before you begin

Before you can purchase a CUD, make sure you have the correct Enterprise Discount Program (EDP), SKU group discounts and CUD information.

Purchasing commitments for node types

You can purchase commitments for node types by using the Google Cloud console. After purchasing a CUD, monthly paid CUDs begin within an hour of purchasing, while upfront paid CUDs begin at 12 AM Pacific.

CUDs are automatically applied to eligible usage in the region you specified. If there is no eligible usage in that region, you can add VMware Engine nodes to count towards your commitment by requesting node quota.

To purchase a commitment in your project for a specific node type, do the following:

ve1 and ve2

To purchase a commitment in your project for a storage-only node (SON) using ve1, do the following:

  1. Access the Google Cloud console.
  2. From the main navigation, click VMware Engine > Committed use discounts.
  3. Click Purchase.
  4. In the Name field, provide a name that helps you identify the commitment that you're purchasing.
  5. Select the region where you want to spend towards your commitment.
  6. Choose a subscription type for your commitment.
  7. Choose an Agreement Type
  8. Choose a commitment duration of 1 or 3 years.
  9. Select a node type and node count for your commitment.
  10. Enter a custom or enterprise discount percentage, if applicable. For Agreement Types Fully licensed, Fully licensed convertible commitments and Portable License commitments, custom discount is generally 0%. For more info see Questions and challenges section.

  11. Review the information you provided and click Purchase to purchase the commitment.

    Prices are estimated so there might be a difference in the final price.

For information about how to view the audit logs, see Committed use discounts audit logging.

Questions and challenges

Consider the following questions and answers in addition to some challenges you might face and how to address them:

Where do I find discount information?

You can find discount information by doing the following:

  1. Check the contracts signed with Google Cloud.
  2. Talk to your Google account representative.
  3. Check the pricing table found in your billing account and search for VMware Engine SKUs by filtering for the "VMware Engine" service description. The discount column displays your discount percentage.
  4. Check for the Discount column VMware Engine pay-as-you-go SKUs. For example, look for "Standard 72 VCPU Node (REGION_NAME)" for ve1 nodes.

What kind of discount information do I need to know before purchasing CUDs?

Customers receive different kinds of discounts based on the contracts they signed with Google Cloud. For VMware Engine, the most common discount received is a custom CUD discount, followed by SKU group discount, and EDP. You can find your discounts on pricing page.

Custom discount

Consider the following information about custom discounts:

For Agreement Types Fully licensed commitments, Fully licensed convertible commitments and Portable License commitments custom discount is generally 0%. This applies to the Legacy CUDs only when offered as part of the contract.

  1. A custom discount is a discount offered on a CUD. Customers are offered a deeper discount on a CUD in a specific region for a certain CUD type. For example, you might be provided a deeper CUD discount for a 3-year prepaid CUD in us-east4 only.
  2. To use this discount, you should purchase only that particular CUD in that region. If you purchase any other CUD in a different region, the extra discount won't be applied.
  3. You should refer to your contract or talk to your Google representative before proceeding with the purchase.
  4. Contracted discounts are available in the pricing page under chosen billing account. You can see the discount under the column "Discount". Check for VMware Engine SKUs that have "Commitment" in the SKU description.

When purchasing nodes with custom CUD discounts, the following applies:

  • You must input the contracted discount percentage.
  • You can't receive a higher discount than contracted by entering a higher custom discount.
  • The underlying system always applies the negotiated discount as per the signed contract.
  • Entering incorrect custom discounts affects the summary values generated at the time of purchase and won't match the final invoice.

SKU group discount

Consider the following information about SKU group discounts:

  1. A SKU group discount is the most common discount used by VMware Engine customers. This discount is offered as part of a large Google Cloud commit.
  2. Contracted discounts are available in the pricing page under chosen billing account. You can see the discount under the column "Discount".
    1. Check for VMware Engine pay-as-you-go SKUs. For example, look for "Standard 72 VCPU Node (region-name)" for ve1 nodes or "VMware Engine Gen 2" for ve2. SKUs that have "Commitment" and "dollar based" are not applicable.
    2. You can also refer to your contract or talk to your Google representative to verify.
    3. For example, customers with 10% SKU group discount on VMware Engine pay-as-you-go SKUs will receive this discount on VMware Engine consumption during the contract period.

If you enter an incorrect SKU group discount while purchasing a CUD, it will impact the invoice. The following may also result:

  • You might be charged for overage. For example, if the actual SKU group discount is 0% but you enter 10%, you might receive an overage charge every month in addition to the CUD charges.
  • If you enter an SKU group discount that's less than the actual discount, then you might commit to spending more than what's required.

Custom and enterprise discount

This type of combined discount is rare, and considerations from both types previously listed apply.

More questions and challenges

Question or challenge How it can be addressed
What happens if the wrong CUD is purchased? Reach out to your Google representative as soon as possible to facilitate a resolution.
I am a resold customer and my partner does not have access to my projects. This is stopping the partner from buying commitments. Create a new project under the same billing account and give access to that project to the partner to access the purchase page. This project is just used for purchasing commitments only.

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