Question 37
Domain 4: Billing, Pricing, and SupportA company is using AWS Organizations to manage multiple AWS accounts. The organization has purchased Reserved Instances in the management account with the intent to maximize utilization and cost savings. How do these Reserved Instances benefit the other accounts within the AWS Organization?
Correct answer: D
Explanation
AWS Organizations supports “consolidated billing” and lets you “save costs via volume discounts + reserved instance sharing.” Reserved Instance discounts are applied across member accounts, so matching usage in any account can consume the reservation and receive the lower rate.
Why each option is right or wrong
A. The Reserved Instance discount only applies to the management account and cannot be used by member accounts unless explicitly transferred.
B. Reserved Instances must be purchased separately for each member account to receive the pricing discount for running instances.
C. Member accounts must request to participate in the Reserved Instances pool of the management account to receive the discounted pricing.
D. Reserved Instance benefits are automatically shared across all member accounts, and matching instances in any member account will use the pricing discount.
AWS Organizations’ consolidated billing model makes the management account the payer for member accounts, and Reserved Instance discounts are applied at the organization level when the RI is regional and matches instance attributes. Under the AWS Billing and Cost Management rules for RI sharing, the discount is automatically consumed by matching usage in any linked member account, so the lower rate is not confined to the management account.