Cloud infrastructure

Amazon Web Services (AWS) — contract review

AWS contract review: what procurement teams typically negotiate in MSAs, EDPs and enterprise discount programmes.

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Amazon Web Services is the largest public-cloud vendor by revenue and the one most procurement teams encounter first when evaluating cloud migration or expansion. The standard contracting vehicle for enterprise customers is the Enterprise Discount Programme (EDP) — a 1-, 3- or 5-year commit in exchange for tiered discounts across most services.

AWS pricing is famously transparent at the list level but heavily negotiable at the EDP level. The same compute capacity can cost dramatically less under a private pricing addendum, but the standard MSA has specific clauses that buyers should review before signing: auto-renewal, egress pricing tiers, support tier scoping, and the right to audit security commitments.

POCsheet runs AI vendor-comparison analysis on AWS proposals alongside competing hyperscalers (Azure, GCP, OCI) to surface where AWS's proposed terms diverge from industry norms and where there's room to negotiate.

Typical contract terms

Standard contract term
1, 3 or 5 years (3-year is the most common EDP commit)
Compute SLA
99.99% monthly for most EC2 instance types
Support tier (typical)
Business support included for EDP customers; Enterprise tier on top of EDP
Egress pricing
$0.09/GB after the free tier, tiered down at high volumes; egress-out-of-region different
Auto-renewal
Typical EDP auto-renews unless explicit notice 60–90 days before term end

Common red flags

  • Strong

    Auto-renewal window without notice

    AWS EDP renewal windows are often 60 days — push for 90 days to give procurement time to evaluate alternatives.

  • Strong

    Egress lock-in at high volumes

    Without a documented egress price schedule per volume tier, the effective cost of leaving AWS is unpredictable.

  • Minor

    Audit rights limited to AWS Artifact

    AWS provides SOC2/ISO reports via Artifact but doesn't grant customer-led audits; this is industry-standard for hyperscalers but worth confirming with your CISO.

Negotiation levers

  • Bring a competing GCP or Azure proposal — AWS sales teams have substantial discount discretion at the EDP level.
  • Negotiate egress pricing tiers explicitly (down to $0.04–0.06/GB at high volumes).
  • Request Business or Enterprise Support included for the EDP term, not as a separate paid add-on.
  • Ask for the auto-renewal notice window extended to 90 days, and an opt-in rather than opt-out at renewal.

Alternatives to consider

  • Microsoft Azure

    Often runs Active Directory / Microsoft 365 integration story better.

  • Google Cloud Platform

    Typically the cost-competitive bid, strongest in data/AI workloads.

  • Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

    Aggressive on price for committed workloads — worth a counter-bid.

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