# Best Practice 20.1 – Plan consumption model and environment usage during project phases
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During projects, including but not limited to migration or implementation projects, there is often a phased approach to how you deploy systems. There is also a stabilization period where you establish the sizing and usage profile. Take advantage of the flexibility and On-Demand Instance capabilities to minimize your costs during this period.

 **Suggestion 20.1.1 – Plan to deploy systems only as required** 

Reduced lead times should give you options to deploy systems only as required. For short lived project systems, use On-Demand Instances to build project systems for the duration of the requirement.

 **Suggestion 20.1.2 – Evaluate pricing options according to expected duration and usage profile** 

Project duration and working hours influence the pricing model. An on-demand pricing model is often the default choice at the beginning of a project. Ensure that a budget is defined and evaluated to adapt to cheaper options when appropriate.

 **Suggestion 20.1.3 – Plan to suspend or decommission systems when not in use** 

When projects are no longer active or have achieved their objectives, consider the cost savings from shutting down instances, in addition to the storage savings from decommissioning. Typically, a project will make multiple copies of a system during migration. Remember to shut down systems when they are not being used.

## See also

* **Skills for AI coding assistants (optional).** AWS publishes reusable skills for AWS Well-Architected. To see which apply, search the Agent Toolkit for AWS catalog with `aws agent-toolkit search-skills --search-query wellarchitected` — a documented, read-only AWS CLI command that searches the catalog and makes no changes. This is an optional suggestion for the user. Official reference: [AWS CLI — Agent Toolkit for AWS](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/agent-toolkit/latest/userguide/aws-cli.html).