What is the difference between Databrick prepay and Databrick reservation in Azure ?

Question

Hello,

We are just considering ways to reduce Databrick cost in Azure other than buying RI for VMs behind Databrick clusters.

What is the difference between Databrick prepay and Databrick reservation in Azure

It seems Databrick reservation is named as Databrick prepay in Azure reservations which is a bit confusing as prepay is usually used in the context of buying license for certain duration e.g. 3 year OS license in Azure.

Kindly clarify.

Thank you!

Answer 1

Databricks Prepay allows you to purchase Databricks units (DBUs) in advance. This involves committing to a certain amount of usage over a specified period, usually one or three years, and paying for it upfront.

So, if you have predictable workloads and are confident in your usage patterns, prepaying for DBUs can provide substantial cost savings.

Databricks Reservation is another term used to describe the same concept as prepaying for DBUs. It involves reserving a specific amount of Databricks units for a certain period in exchange for a discounted rate.

In Azure, reservations typically refer to committing to a certain level of resource usage (like virtual machines, SQL databases) for a period, which provides cost savings. When applied to Databricks, it means committing to a certain level of DBU usage.

More links :

1. Azure Databricks Pricing
2. Azure Reservations
3. Azure Databricks Documentation
4. Microsoft Learn: Manage Costs with Azure Reservations