A vital concept of colocation billing that you have to be aware of is bandwidth charging. In general terms bandwidth refers to the amount of data per second that a connection can possibly handle. But when it comes to provider talk this is treated as the amount of data transferred with each server activity for a given billing period.
Normally the basic package consists of a standard amount of data transfer. This can be measured in terms of the allowable number of gigabytes. This can range from two gigabytes up to about hundreds. Once the customer exceeds the agreed data transfer parameters then extra charges will come into the picture. These charges can be in pennies or dollars per gigabyte.
Two methods are utilized in mapping out the billing for the bandwidth charges. The more common of the two is the 95th percentile which is usually used by large scale servers. The other one is called straight data transfer rate which is more suitable to small servers that only demand low bandwidth.
When the 95th percentile is tapped on, the amount of data transferred is identified by looking at the network port that is attached to the server. The provider checks this port every three to five minutes and the reading is recorded and stored in a database. At the conclusion of each billing cycle, the database is analyzed to determine the entry that is tagged as the 95th percentile for a specific overall size. Once such entry is present the bandwidth usage is computed by multiplying the billing cycle length with the 95th percentile rate.
Since most of the internet servers have a consistent traffic for majority of the billing cycle and with only several bursting traffic the 95th percentile method is the ideal one for most customers. Moreover, a large portion of network connections really become idle during times when they are indicated as idle. The 95th percentile only becomes disadvantageously expensive when a site works with a high sustained transfer rate for more than five percent of the time its link is running.
The straight data rate is aptly named since this method is very simple and straightforward. Billing is produced by summing up all the incoming and outgoing traffic for a certain billing cycle. Whatever the number that pops out via colocation server transfers the customer has to pay for it. Most of the time there is no complication but you have to be keen with the actual data traffic occurring to and from your server.
Before signing with a colocation provider make sure that no stone is left unturned. Think of how much data is needed to keep your site in good running condition. If you have no idea, then feel free to ask the provider for a more flexible agreement in terms of bandwidth charging. You can look for companies that offer lower rates per gigabytes or those that can offer a higher base bandwidth. Whether it is 95th percentile or straight data rate make sure that you have access to the documentation of data transfer to determine if it is executed accurately.