Google Cloud Platform rolled out Committed Use Discounts, which are designed to pass along savings to enterprises for a one- or three-year purchase commitment to Google Compute Engine.

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The move rhymes with Amazon Web Services reserved instances, but more importantly, highlights how Google Cloud Platform is building out its enterprise use cases and features while still using price to elbow its way into multi-cloud environments.

Google Cloud Platform may not be the only cloud provider in an enterprise, but it's willing to offer discounts to make sure it gets its share.

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Across the US, Compute Engine prices will fall about 5 percent. In Europe, prices will fall 4.9 percent with an 8-percent drop in Tokyo. The problem with cloud price wars is that your cuts depend on a bevy of factors.

RightScale, however, did a quick analysis of Google's Committed Use Discounts compared to AWS Reserve Instances. RightScale concluded that Committed Use Discounts will be less expensive than AWS Reserve Instances.

In a blog post, RightScale noted:

We used an anonymous real-world company's cloud usage that represents a typical usage pattern combining both production and development use. That scenario revealed that a 1-year commitment showed a cost for Google Compute Engine with Committed Use and Sustained Use Discounts that was 28 percent lower than an equivalent scenario on AWS with Standard RIs. Our scenario with a 3-year commitment resulted in a cost for Google that was 35 percent lower than an equivalent scenario on AWS with 3-year Convertible RIs. In addition, for the 1-year scenario, the AWS user would have no flexibility to change instance families or regions, while the Google user would have the flexibility to make changes to VM types and zones.

Now the obvious wild-card is that AWS is likely to tweak its Reserved Instances pricing. Microsoft Azure will also respond. The details behind RightScale's analysis are worth checking out. In a graphic, the cost comparison boils down like this:

Related: Private cloud deployments lose luster as enterprises lean toward public, multi-cloud approaches, says RightScale

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