Posted: 4/20/2012 7:51:10 AM EDT
| Does anybody here know about colocation? I've got a couple questions about how things are billed. Like do I pay more based on power? |
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It can vary by colocation provider some places offer various options also.
several options were provided at my last employer they offered a guaranteed bandwidth usage agreement then what they called a burstable usage feature which had a fixed rate for however much you went over the guaranteed bandwidth usage. so if you had x amount of bandwidth you knew you were going to need every month you would lock into that rate, then anything you went over was billed accordingly, so if you went over between 1-5 gigs you were billed so much extra between 5-10 then it was a different rate. There were a LOT of options, if it was small scale sometimes it would be billed based on power usage since the data usage wasn't that noticeable. |
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A cabinet (or half cabinet, or slice of a cabinet, however small you want to go) is usually bundled with *some* amount of power in the monthly bill. But if you need more power circuits, then you have to pay more. If your company may grow, be sure to get figures from the DC on how many watts per cabinet they will let you grow into.
If a colo won't let you bring your own pipe in, it's a good sign that they are not full-featured, and generally don't want to accommodate what you need for your business. They're usually the shops that are tailored to the small client, and treat clients as a commodity. I wouldn't even consider such organizations. The DC may offer you very good deals on bandwidth (since they have huge amounts), but as you realize, other considerations can override the low cost. As for bandwidth billing, there are lots of options. Some places sell data transfer, some places sell bandwidth. You're a smart guy, I think you already know which of those would suit your model best. Other factors are 24x7 access, hands-on assistance if you need it, timeliness of support, etc.. As for SLAs... as offered, they can be thrown out. It's easy for a company to put a lot of "9"'s in a contract, and pay you a piddling amount of reimbursement if they don't reach that. But the cost to your business is usually larger than any reimbursement you'll get. One point that I often bring up when negotiating colo contracts is that they need to provide for early, no-fee contract termination if they fail to meet their SLAs. |