SAA-C03 Practice Question: Compute Savings Plans cover any EC2 instance…
A company runs EC2 workloads including web servers (m5.large), batch jobs (c5.xlarge), and a data processing service that will migrate from r5 to r6i instances within 6 months. The company wants to commit to 1 year to reduce costs but needs flexibility for the planned instance family migration. Which purchasing option provides the GREATEST savings while accommodating the change?
⚠ Common exam trap
EC2 Instance Savings Plans offer a deeper discount (up to 72%) but are locked to a specific instance family and region. Compute Savings Plans sacrifice ~2-5% discount compared to EC2 Instance Savings Plans but cover all families, sizes, regions, and Lambda/Fargate. When a family migration is planned, Compute Savings Plans are the correct choice — EC2 Instance Savings Plans would not cover the new r6i family.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Compute Savings Plans with a 1-year term commitment
Compute Savings Plans automatically apply to any EC2 instance regardless of family, size, region, OS, or tenancy — including both r5 and r6i. When the data processing service migrates from r5 to r6i, the Compute Savings Plan continues to apply without any action required. EC2 Instance Savings Plans lock to a specific instance family in a specific region. When the workload migrates from r5 to r6i, the EC2 Instance Savings Plan for r5 no longer applies — leaving the r6i workload billed at On-Demand rates.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Standard Reserved Instances for each instance type with a 1-year term
Why it's wrong here
Standard Reserved Instances are rigidly bound to an exact instance type (for example, r5.2xlarge), so they cannot accommodate any change to a different family or size. If you purchase RIs for each r5 type and later move to r6i, the r5 RIs remain billed monthly but are useless because the new r6i instances are not covered, forcing you to pay On-Demand for r6i while also paying for the idle r5 reservations. This produces both duplication of cost and wasted capacity, so it is incorrect for this scenario.
- ✓
Compute Savings Plans with a 1-year term commitment
Why this is correct
Compute Savings Plans offer up to 66% savings compared to On-Demand and apply automatically to any EC2 instance family, including the transition from r5 to r6i, with no reconfiguration or exchange needed. The hourly commitment is flexible across instance sizes and operating systems, so the migration does not disrupt your discount. This makes it the only option that fully supports an instance family migration without manual intervention or wasted commitments.
- ✗
EC2 Instance Savings Plans for the r5 instance family with a 1-year term
Why it's wrong here
EC2 Instance Savings Plans provide a deep discount but lock you into a specific instance family in a region — here, the r5 family. When the workload migrates to r6i, the Savings Plan discount no longer applies, so the r6i instances are billed at full On-Demand rates while you continue paying for the r5 commitment you no longer use. This creates stranded capacity and negates the savings, making it a poor fit for a migration between families.
- ✗
Convertible Reserved Instances for all instance types with a 1-year term
Why it's wrong here
Convertible Reserved Instances do support exchanging to a different instance family, but each exchange must be manually initiated and its value is recalculated based on current pricing, so it is not a seamless or automatic transition. You would also need to purchase RIs for every instance type upfront, adding administrative overhead. In contrast, Compute Savings Plans automatically cover the new r6i family without any manual action, making this option less suitable for a migration.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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