Reserved Instance
In plain terms
A discounted cloud capacity commitment for steady workloads.
Going deeper
Reserved Instances offer lower prices in exchange for committing to use capacity for one or three years. They cut costs for predictable usage.
Under the hood
Big savings over on-demand for steady loads; less flexible, with Savings Plans as a flexible alternative.
Examples
Steady-state workloads, cost optimization, predictable usage, AWS billing.
Think of it like...
Like signing a lease for a year to get a much better rate than nightly hotel stays.