What’s the Difference Between an EDP and a PPA?
Tl;dr Nothing, they’re functionally the same thing.
We do a lot of AWS contract negotiation at The Duckbill Group, and confusion about discount types seems to pop up during every engagement.
The difference between an Enterprise Discount Program (“EDP”) vs. a Private Pricing Addendum (“PPA”) isn’t self-evident. In fact, even other sources online trying to answer the question still get it wrong. So let’s correct the misunderstanding and confusion.
The history of EDPs and PPAs
Before explaining the difference between the EDPs and PPAs, it’s worth making a distinction about discount types. There are three core commercials in an AWS contract: cross-service discounts, service-specific discounts, and credits.
Once upon a time, the EDP was the only contractual vehicle to get a cross-service discount, while the PPA provided service-specific discounts, as an addendum to the EDP contract.
For the past few years, the EDP and PPA programs have become functionally the same thing for customers. Some smaller contracts will still say EDP on them while larger contracts are under the PPA structure. For customer purposes, this is just a leaky abstraction: Non-useful internal details are being exposed to the customer and creating confusion.
What’s in AWS contracts today
Every contract you see these days says “Private Pricing” or “PPA” on it. What that means is that it’s time to update your own language:
- “We have an EDP discount of 12%.” → “We have a cross-service discount of 12%.”
- “Which PPAs are we negotiating for?” → “Which service-specific discounts are we negotiating for?”
Rest assured that if your previous contract said EDP and your new one says PPA, you haven’t missed anything. It’s just a new name and nothing more.
