Bandwidth

Data transfer includes all traffic that passes through a web hosting provider’s core routers, including FTP and email. Colocation packages normally include either 1Mbps or 5Mbps burstable connections, measured on the 95^th percentile. A 10Mbps connection relates to approximately 3.3 Terabytes of bandwidth monthly.

To determine estimated monthly bandwidth for your site, first determine the page size for each page of your website, then estimate how many daily pageviews you project for each. Simply multiply to estimate monthly bandwidth forecasted, allowing for some overhead.

Note: A two (2) minute video can easily consume 10MB of bandwidth. As little as 300 downloads per day of that one video can consume 90GB of bandwidth monthly.

 Rack Space

 1U = 1.75″ of Vertical Rack Space

 2U = 3.5″ of Vertical Rack Space

 3U = 5.25″ of Vertical Rack Space

 4U = 7.00″ of Vertical Rack Space.

IP Subnets

 /30…..4 IP’s – 2 useable

 /29…..8 IP’s – 6 useable

 /28…..16 IP’s

 /27…..32 IP’s

 /26…..64 IP’s

 /24…..256 IP’s

 /23…..512 IP’s

 /22…..1024 IP’s

 /21…..2048 IP’s

 /20…..4096 IP’s

 /19…..8192 IP’s

Total cost of ownership (TCO) – in Information Technology (IT) is the total cost of the staff and infrastructure to support your business. When crunching numbers to determine the TCO of your IT department, and how that fits into your day to day operations, disaster recovery and business continuity plans, take that one step further to compare those numbers versus colocating your servers in a data center.

Let’s say your business earns $5 million in annual revenues, with very aggressive plans to grow to $6 million. That extra $1 million will be the result of realized growth opportunities and a reduction in expenditures / streamlining your operations.

Most small businesses of this size employ – one or two technicians to manage their servers, desktops, laptops, switches, hubs, printers, phone systems, email, applications, backups, etc. Your annualized investment can easily exceed $300,000. Your business data needs to be communicated internally as well as externally, so the applications and hardware can’t be scaled back, although they may be optimized by upgrading to more efficient services.

This is the scenario thousands of small businesses find themselves in today - only with scaled back growth projections due to the credit crunch.  So how could these companies lower their Total Cost of Ownership by colocating their servers in a data center? What do data centers have that aren’t part of their existing IT infrastructure?

Servers colocated in a data center are – normally secured in a cage or rack, with regulated power, dedicated connectivity, layered security and on-site support services 24x7x365. Data centers typically have alarms monitored for fire, smoke and moisture, and power is backed up by a UPS and diesel fuel generator – greatly diminishing any loss of mission critical data due to fire, theft, vandalism or loss of power.

• Physical space
  • Rack
  • Servers
  • UPS
  • Switch
  • Router
  • Diesel Fuel Generator
  • Firewall Appliance
  • Security Systems
  • Demarcation
• IT Staff
  • Certified
  • Trustworthy
  • Reliable
  • Elevated reimbursement plus benefits
  • Available 24/7/365
• Location
  • Expandable connectivity available to your location (s).
• Climate control
  • Sensor alarms for temperature, moisture, smoke, etc.
• Physical security
  • Locked server room with assigned access privileges
• Network Monitoring
  • Hardware/Software investment
  • Email Alerts
  • IT staff on call 24/7/365

Colocation offers a very cost-effective means of housing a secure hosting environment. Physical space is freed in-house, plus capital asset expense is dramatically reduced.

In-house – Few businesses can afford dual diesel fuel backup generators and none have the ability to cross-connect to different vendors. Managing an IT staff layers substantial payroll expense and man-hours. Disaster recovery plans are typically DAT tape backups and are rarely compliant.

Climate controls depend over whether the cleaning lady left the door to your server room open. Often there is no door – simply open access to your most valued resource – your data. Companies who have lost data fail at an alarming rate.

Scalability is limited and monitoring is more often than not a user complaining he/she can’t get their email, surf the Internet or receive calls.

Colocation – offers

• BGP networks for maximum uptime and reliability (blended)
• Remote Hands Support
• Redundant power sources
  • Power grids
  • UPS
  • Diesel fuel generators
• Cross-connects (e.g., Cogent, SAVVIS and Level3)
• Physical security
• Electronic security
• Network monitoring
• Alarm sensors
  • Temperature
  • Moisture
  • Smoke
  • Fire
• Scalability
  • Cabinet and rack space
  • Bandwidth

Colocation services can be quickly deployed (no wait time to provision new circuits) and are easily expanded.

Businesses are migrating to colocation because it simply makes good ‘business sense.’

This morning I was reading on a forum about a data center in Los Angeles that offered some amazing amenities to it’s clients, but at a significant price point. Among those were showers in the rest rooms, a cafeteria, a lounge area with an X Box, a PlayStation and vending machines. Yet another had a putting green. They’re a publicly traded corporation and their stock has remained stable over the past year (low customer churn).

Yet, as I talk to business owners, I hear countless strategies of thrift – downsizing budgets and cutting out frills. It should be every providers goal to give, at least, the perception that their services are a value-add to their clients. Not everyone needs 30TB of bandwidth, or 1.5TB RAID-10 arrays … or putting greens at their data center. LOL

Certainly, there are benefits to colocation – physically locating your IT equipment (servers, switches, etc.) at a data center.  By leveraging data center facilities, you can save on capital expenditures, streamlining your budget.

In today’s marketplace, the effective management of capital is paramount to operating a viable business. Data is king. It grows exponentially with time. How do you justify the expense to build out new infrastructure or expand on existing infrastructure? What is the projected Return on your Investment (ROI)? Could that new infrastructure become obsolete with the advent of dynamic change in technology, or shifting organizational strategies – or a relocation of your business?

What are the major costs related to maintaining your own data center?

Surely, your IT budget will command much of the expense for facilities management, but the cost of cooling and power are quickly gaining ground, as power costs escalate.  How do you equate power now in your IT budget? Colocation could provide transparency to your data center expense, allowing your IT budget to more accurately reflect its overhead and power expense.

Colocation Responsibilities

Colocation clients purchase, manage and maintain their own equipment, including servers, switches, etc. The data center provides the facility, cabinet space, redundant power, BGP bandwidth, climate controlled environment and security. The amount of cabinet space you require will depend on how many racks you’ll need. Each rack can normally house 42U of rack space, where 1U of space equates to 1.75 inches in height.

Power

The majority of entry level and mid-range servers are configured with 120v plugs even though by design they will work with 120 or 208v. Larger towers and rack mounted servers tend to be configured with 208v.

Why 208v?

The primary reason is for power supply energy efficiency, which is a measurement of the amount of power lost between the input and output of a server’s power supply. You could expect a two to three percent increase in power supply efficiency by simply increasing the input voltage, resulting in a significant saving in power expense. Some have reported as high as a 30 percent increase in efficiency.

This energy savings is significant to any data center’s bottomline.

Can 120v be retrofitted to 208v? Absolutely. Whereas 120v has one hot, one neutral and one ground, 208v simply has 2 hot lines versus one.  Do your servers run 120v or 208v? Will most data centers customize their existing 120v to match your 208v requirements? Yes

Why is 208v more energy efficient?

For a given amount of power, as the voltage increases, less current is required. Conversely, as voltage decreases, more current is necessary to maintain the same amount of power.

Hosted where?

If you’re currently hosted in LA, NY or Chicago, you’re fully aware that the cost of power contributes heavily to the liability side of your balance sheet.  Power through Ameren UE in the Midwest is significantly less expensive, as much as half in some instances. If your cost was cut in half, let’s say from $20,000.00 to $10,000.00 monthly, would it matter if your servers were colocated in Chicago or St. Louis? These types of savings should surely make moving much more attractive!

The trend

The hosting industry is already seeing more and more relocations and outsourced applications, primarilyto reduce power expenses. During the next five years, it’s projected that one in four businesses will experience a significant business interuption. Couple that with the explosive growth of data. 161 Exabytes of data were created in 2006, which is approximately three million times the information of all the books ever written.  

Sample Data Center

First sample - has 1600Amp service @480 served through redundant Ameren UE (power utility) feeds protected by a pair of redundant 150kVA UPSs and a 1500 kW generator.

Cooling

Power consumption is directly related to the amount of heat dissipated into a data center. The level of heat expelled per rack has increased with new technologies, like quad core processors. How warm are your servers running now? Heat is definitely their enemy! Colocating that infrastructure into the data center’s climate controlled environment will minimize the risk of compromising your ability to deliver mission critical applications.

Sample Data Center

This data center is cooled by four Liebert 20 ton downflow CRAC units which are on a Glycol cooling loop with 200 tons of capacity.

Security

How safe is your data today? Does your cleaning lady have access to your server room? Is your credit card terminal in the same room as your servers? Do you even have a door to your server room? If you do, is there controlled access? Does your level of security meet your operational requirements? Can your business model support your current requirements? Is your current growth sustainable, or has your ROI turned upside down? If you’re hosted elsewhere now, do you really need biometrix hand scans and security guards posted behind bullet proof glass?

Security is of the utmost importance.  Data center closed circuit video surveillance systems normally monitor every entry point into the data center.

Bandwidth

How much bandwidth do you have at your business today? A T-1 at 1.54Mbps? Possibly two – load balanced? Or an ePort at 10Mbps? If at a data center now, what level of uplink ports are available? Conversely, how much bandwidth is available at your data centers and at what cost? Most data centers have multiple Tier 1 carrier connections on a BGP network with 10, 100Mbps and GigE uplink ports to provide flexibility, ensuring traffic is routed for redundancy (to protect against a single switch or router failure) and maximum network performance. Data center also facilitate cross connects to carriers of choice for individual or legacy network requirements.

Costs for bandwidth are customized to fit your requirements.

Bandwidth isn’t as straight-forward as you may think. For some it is the total amount of data, typically measured in Megabytes, Gigabytes or Terabytes, that may be downloaded or uploaded during a given month – also referred to as data transfer.

Straight data fees

If you use 10MB, you pay for 10MB. If you use 20GB, you pay for 20GB.  Typical bandwidth plans are based on metered, unmetered, burstable and 95th percentile billing.

Unmetered bandwidth

Unmetered bandwidth means that the maximum data transfer rate is capped at a specific speed, but the amount of data transfer at that speed is unlimited. The cost for unmetered bandwidth is based on a fixed monthly charge for bandwidth consumption payable at the beginning of a monthly cycle.

There are dedicated and shared unmetered bandwidth plans.

Dedicated or guaranteed unmetered plans offer bandwidth pipes available to you and you only, that you can max out at will. Most data centers offer burst options for overages on a 95^th percentile.

Shared unmetered plans means your data center shares your pipe with other customers. These types of plans typically provide a guaranteed minimum but not a guaranteed maximum.

When operating at a speed of 1.54Mbps, a VPS is capable of a maximum 30 day transfer total of (1.54 Megabits per second / 8 bits per byte = .1925 Megabytes per second * 60 seconds = 11.55 Megabytes per minute * 60 minutes = 693 Megabytes per hour * 24 hours = 16,632 Megabytes per day * 30 days = 498,960 Megabytes per month / 1024 bytes = 487 Gigabytes per month. If your requirements exceed 487GB monthly, 5/10/100Mbps plans are offered.

A 10mbps connection equates to about 3.3 Terabytes of bandwidth and 100Mbps to about 33.3 Terabytes.

Metered plans

The expense for metered bandwidth is calculated at the end of each monthly billing cycle. Metered essentially means your bandwidth usage is monitored and you’re responsible for any overages.

Small servers with low bandwidth usage are normally billed at a straight data transfer rate.

What is the 95^th Percentile?

 Another bandwidth plan uses the 95^th percentile method for computing bandwidth expense. For example, a 10Mbps plan billed at the 95^th relates to 10Mbps unmetered but the connection itself may be capable of 100Mbps. This enables your server to reach speeds up to 100Mbps (burstable). At the end of the monthly billing cycle, the top 5% of the speeds are removed, then the 10Mbps is subtracted, leaving any overages. In this case, if your server used 15Mbps over 95% monthly, you would incur an additional bandwidth expense of 5Mbps.

Consistent traffic with a couple days of bursting results in far less bandwidth expense than, let’s say 10 days of bursting each month. The difference can be as high as ten times more.

Colocation Pros:

If you’re in close geographical proximity to your data center, you can work on your own equipment (upgrades, etc.) avoiding the cost of outsourced parts and labor.

As you grow, savings from colocation grow as well.

As a rule, it’s generally less expensive when compared to unmanaged dedicated.

Your fixed assets show on your balance sheet, indicating higher net worth (important to banks and potential customers).

If you’re using accrual accounting, you’ll be able to show profitability on your income statement by spreading expenses over three to five years (depreciation).

Ok, you’ve built a sizeable client base, which now compels you to – research expanding your infrastructure. Rack expense is seemingly going up every month, to the point you’re considering colocating at a differnet data center.

You’ve been actively reading through threads – posted on related forums, searching Google for info on your narrowed list of providers, initiated contact with several providers to get a feel about their operation and … you’ve been crunching numbers until the keys are worn out on your calculator. Or your Excel spreadsheet is screaming, “Please, decide one way or the other. Just do something.”

Do you really need 2N+1 or would N+1 be sufficient? Do you really need biometrix hand scans and security guards posted behind bullet proof glass? What level of security meets your operational requirments? Can your business model support your current requirements? Is your current growth sustainable, or has your ROI turned upside down?

If you’re currently hosted in LA, NY or Chicago, you’re fully aware – that the cost of power contributes heavily to the liability side of your balance sheet.  Power through Ameren UE in the Midwest is significantly less expensive, as much as half in some instances. If your cost was cut in half, let’s say from $20,000.00 to $10,000.00 monthly, would it matter if your servers were colocated in Chicago or St. Louis? Maybe, but it would sure make moving a lot more attractive!

For this type of move, I absolutely recommend – going to lunch with each of the providers on your narrowed list. Why? It allows you to gain some insight into their key players awareness and in-depth knowledge of the market. Simple conversation over a platter of pasta will reveal so much more about a provider than a formal (sometimes canned) presentation.

Ok, you’ve decided to colocate your equipment – to a data center, primarily because it makes good business sense.

For one, you want to take advantage of – a data center’s bandwidth. A BGP (mixed blend of carriers) network and ability to cross connect is important to you. You’re tired of choking on your existing bandwidth. Production is being adversely affected.

You desperately need to enhance security. You have a data closet, but everyone including the cleaning lady has access to it. OUCH!

You want to take advantage of a data center’s depth of experience. Your senior IT tech just moved to your competition and his assistant is still in trade school – OJT.

You want to scale back your technology overhead (infrastructure, staffing) by outsourcing services like:

• 24/7/365 Monitoring
• Equipment reboots
• Backups. You’ve recently experienced one power failure that took 3 days to completely restore your data.

You’ve grown uncomfortable and feel captive – to your IT department. It’s your business, but you’re not a geek – you’re an entrepreneur. Making money is what you do best. Anything that detracts from that or adversely affects your ability to provide stable profitable employment for you and your employees has to be addressed.

Reliability, Security, Flexibility and $$ Savings

Colocating minimizes downtime of mission-critical servers and applications. Can you afford to lose even one hour of revenue stream? What would it mean to YOUR organization in lost sales, opportunities and productivity? Or lost clients? Millions of dollars are lost every year to man-made & natural disasters with servers and applications hosted in-house. Whether your market is regional or global, statistics have shown an alarming percentage of organizations that have lost data go out of business within a year.

Scenario One: Imagine a large organization headquartered downtown in a major metropolitan area (St. Louis, Chicago, NY, LA, Atlanta, Miami … ) with branches scattered throughout its suburbs. They host their own servers and run Point-to-Point T-1s from each branch back downtown, plus another Point-to-Point T-1 from their HQ to a processing service out-of-state. Internet access is provided via an ISP to their Headquarters, then distributed to each branch. Let’s say they’re also hosting VoIP services.

Murphy’s Law kicks in, (if something can go wrong, it will go wrong). It’s late Spring and a thunderstorm rolls through causing widespread loss of power across the area for days, including at its Headquarters. Twelve of its sixteen branches still have power, but lack Internet access or phone services. Would this severely impact their operation? Would colocation help? Absolutely!

Do prolonged power outages happen every year? With regularity! I used to live in the Sunshine State of Florida (Pensacola & Miami) – plan on hurricane threats every year (up and down the Gulf and Eastern seaboard). The Midwest – tornadoes, thunderstorms and floods. California – mudslides, fires and earthquakes (and an occasional brown-out). Been there – done that.

Scenario two: You’ve started an immensely successful classic car dealership, where you showcase muscle cars on consignment, and historically ship a third of your inventory monthly via Internet orders worldwide. You’re on the fringe of a large metropolis, but the only connectivity to your dealership is a T-1 that seems to regularly choke, plus you endure an occasional power outage. Your Windows 2003 server is hosted in-house, but your website is on a dedicated server at a datacenter. Your website is always UP, but not your in-house connection. Someone in Australia is dying to own that ’57 Chevy you have on sale for $73,000.00 on your website, but you suffer delays in processing the order because your in-house servers are down. It seems like you’re constantly doing work-a-rounds. Does this severely impact your business? Would colocation help? Absolutely!

Scenario three: You’re a web developer – a good one. You’ve been designing websites since 1969 (in anticipation of the upcoming Internet). Your client base has matured to the point where you have enough clients to justify a dedicated server hosted at a reputable data center. You’ve been using a proprietary control panel with a discount host (shared IPs), but feel now is the time to step up to DirectAdmin on a managed Linux box (with static IPs for each site). Your old host has been pretty decent except for a few lapses of downtime. Recently you’ve begun to read some questionable posts about your host on forums that help force the issue. One post complained of her sites being hacked because (your) provider didn’t have the latest patches installed. It’s the second time one of her sites has been hacked and now (your) host is threatening to terminate her account (all 17 sites). For you, developing websites started out as an experiment, but over the years, it’s become your sole source of income. You start wondering how safe your sites are. If even one of your sites got hacked, would it severely impact your business? Would colocation help? Absolutely!

Scenario four: You manage streaming audio and video services, and need the absolute best possible speed. You desperately need economy of scale in bandwidth vs cost, as you’ve just launched a viral promotion that promises to triple your revenue within months. Bandwidth pricing is becoming cost prohibitive with your current provider, and you’re considering moving to a host that offers (economical) cross-connects. If your provider can’t economically support your anticipated bandwidth requirements, would that severely impact your promotion? Would colocation help? Absolutely!

Why Colocate?

Reliability – Downtime can be crippling. What if you lost your (_______) for only an hour?

• Web Server – would your clients stand by you or start shopping your competition?
• Centralized Point of Sales (POS) System – what if you couldn’t reconcile batched payments from 300 retail outlets nationwide?
• File Server – who needs access to accounting software, vendor or client records anyway?

Flexibility

Scale your services as you grow your business. Most data centers offer 10, 100 and Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) uplinks, with bandwidth as low as $5Mbps. 

Security

You have $$ thousands, possibly $$ millions, currently invested in data and technology infrastructure. Protect your investment from malicious attacks or theft by colocating at a secure data center. Data centers are protected 24/7/365 via physical security, monitored video surveillance cameras, controlled access (physical login, access card, and keyed access), plus smoke, temperature and moisture alarms. All visitors are cross-checked against client defined access lists. 

Cost Management and $$ Savings

The cost to build, secure and maintain an in-house data center can run into the thousands of dollars, often millions. The cost of power alone can amount to $$ tens of thousands of savings between LA, Chicago and NY versus Saint Louis. Layer on scaled bandwidth expense, multiple backup diesel fuel generators, 24/7/365 monitoring and it rapidly escalates beyond an expense most businesses desire to undertake. Plus, in-house skilled network engineers command sizeable compensation and benefits. Volumes have been written about the expense of replacing qualified IT staff, should they move on to higher paying jobs or just leave without explanation.