[falcolas]

You don't know when, or even if. It's entirely subjective on how secure Amazon feels in keeping your business.

I know of one business where it took 4 years for Amazon to start dropping that hammer. A real killer for any maturing startup.

Yes, you could simply budget for the full price and set aside that money, but any smart executive will tell you that money is better invested in the company. Would you be willing to fire 10-20 employees with 1-4 years of tenure because Amazon decided you were tied enough to them to drop your discount?

[BatFastard]

As an AWS user since 2007, I have seen my bill for existing services drop every month. Now they keep on adding great new services, but they are not jacking up the price on anything. Hm.. I want to plan my game, costs for the servers will be going down each year, can I live with that?

[abiox]

i'm not convinced that we're talking about a "smart executive" in this particular scenario.