Managed Services

This section describes basic concepts for bandwidth service from Online Tech.  For a more detailed discussion, see the document Bandwidth Service.

• Internet traffic can be measured two ways: Bandwidth or Transfer.

  • Bandwidth is the rate at which data is sent to or received from the Internet. It is measured in megabits per second (Mbps). e.g. 4 megabits per second (Mbps).

  • Transfer is number of bytes transferred to or received from the Internet. It is generally measured in Gigabytes (GB) of information. e.g. 5 Gigabytes.

  • Online Tech uses Bandwidth for most billing. Shared hosting and some custom backup solutions are based on transfer and are not subject to the new overage billing.

• Bandwidth usage is Contracted or Overage

  • Contracted is the amount of bandwidth or traffic you commit to pay for and Online Tech commits to deliver every month regardless of amount used.

  • Overage is amount of bandwidth or traffic you use beyond the amount you contracted.

• How is Bandwidth measured?

  • Online Tech uses the industry standard "95th percentile" to measure bandwidth usage.

  • This technique "samples" your bandwidth use approximately every 5 minutes. There are 8,000 to 9,000 samples in a month.

  • The highest sample, after discarding the highest 5%, is the 95th percentile. Online Tech bills based on that 95th percentile. 

  • This means that for 36 hours per month (which is 5% of 720 hours in a month) you can use more than your Contracted amount with no additional charges.

  • The highest sample is the Peak Bandwidth. The Peak Bandwidth available is set based on your contract with Online Tech. 

• How much bandwidth should you buy?

  • We recommend that you contract for 50% more bandwidth than your typical 95th percentile and that you use overage billing for those rare occasions that you need more bandwidth for over 36 hours in a month.

  • Keep in mind, that if you don't contract for the bandwidth it might not be available which can have a very negative affect for your hosting.

  • It is expensive and risky to repeatedly rely on overage bandwidth. If you consistently have overages, then increasing your Contracted amount will reduce your costs and risks.

  • Be sure that your Peak Bandwidth meets the highest bandwidth used in the prior month.