The 95th percentile is a widely used mathematical calculation to evaluate the regular and sustained utilization of a network pipe. HCST*Net monitors all our dedicated Internet connections, and gathers usage statistics every 5 minutes.
Basically the 95th percentile says that 95% of the time, your usage is below this amount. Conversely of course, 5% of the time, usage is above that amount. That means the shorter spikes (accounting for less than 5% of the month) are eliminated. The 95th percentile is a good number to use for planning so you can ensure you have the needed bandwidth at least 95% of the time.
HCST*Net Burstable T1 services are charged based on the 95th percentile maximum utilization statistics gathered.
Please note, HCST*Net monitors connections 24x7 and accumulates actual usage statistics. HCST*Net is NOT responsible for misuse of your Internet circuit.
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The 95th percentile method is the most common method of measurement. Our systems take a traffic sample poll every two minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and then calculates the level of traffic. The polls representing the 5% of the most traffic utilized are discarded and a remaining 95% are used to measure your sustained usage for the month. Billing is apportioned on the remaining 95th percentile of sustained traffic for a period of one month. This method is preferred by customers who have relatively few high usage periods above their normal traffic (less than 5%) during the month.
Even once answered, its still hard to grasp. I really didn't understand it completely untill I started selling it.
95%ile for dumbys.
Every X minutes (usually 5, sometimes 1) the ISP's monitor makes a connection to either your switch port (snmp) or directly to your machine (managed servers)
They take a reading of current useage (its really much much more indept on what it reads, but for simplicity just think of it as a raw usage figure)
They take this number and store it in a database (usually a RRD, )
After storing every sample for the time period (usually monthly, some ISP's will also calculate daily and weekly for you) the calculations begin. How 95%ile is calculated is they take all of the samples, then they filter out the peaks (peak in OR peak out) they use one sample for in OR out, usually whichever is higher, some ISP's only do outbound. So you have one sample for every x minutes they poll. Then you take the top 5% or x number of samples and ignore them. The very next highest reading is what your billed on. Its not a real average, its the 95% read sample. The highest sample left is your billing, not a average of all samples.
Whats best for you?? Alot of ISP's don't let you choose what your billed on. 95%ile is probably the most popular. Next, is max thruput or capped connections. When you buy large lines like gigabit, or some ISP's like verio, your buying a capped thruput rating. Last and least popular is average. Its average in + out, and usually its more per meg than 95% because it is a true average usage.
If you run a smooth and consistant network, with few spikes, 95%ile is fine. It will alow for a couple heavy days without breaking your bank. BUT, viri or other net problems (password traders for adult sites is a common problem) can give you a heavy bill. The idea behind 95%il is that your billed on the size network you use, and alow you a bit of room to flex if you need to transfer a large file one day.
Running on a capped or max thruput line is just as good as 95%ile, but you dont have the luxury of the bursting now and then. Usually, its a few % cheaper per meg aswell. Industry 'standard' usually allows you a 25% burst on a capped line, but if your bursting heavily over your cap, you can expect your network proformance to degrade (i.e. game servers lag)
Good luck finding a ISp billing you on an average usage. If they are, you can spike to 80M one day, and average out over the month to only a couple megs. most ISP's wont let this happen, and the ones that do charge you for it heavily.
Well, thats ISp billing in a nutshell. If it sounds confusing, its cause it is
You can be billed on any of these ways, and even a combonation. Its all up to the network engineer and CEO's on how they manage there network.. Some companys are flexable, most are not.
Well, my average client is $500-$1000 a month. I target small-med sized corporations that need a fair amount of resources.
I still have the game servers, and the 1u/1meg guys, but really my business is managment of good sized networks and larger clients.
Odds of finding one of them on here is.. low.. and usually they have already decided where they want to host. I would have to say that the business i target need more of a trust relationship than a cool forum dude
It's just not worth it to me to target $5 hosting clients. I would rather have 100 premium clients paying a premium price, than 1000 clients and try to run a cut-rate colo-shop. You do get what you pay for, and I wouldnt ever think of running a sub-standard business to get more sales. In the end, those are the ones you see going out of business. *cough*XGamer*cough*
If all else fails, my pricing keeps the little guys out
Comments
Bandwithwise
was just wondering how that was worked out
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taken from: http://www.hcst.net/services/internet/95percentile.htm and http://www.theplanet.com/solutions/colocation.php respectively
Hope that got your question answered.
Even once answered, its still hard to grasp. I really didn't understand it completely untill I started selling it.
95%ile for dumbys.
Every X minutes (usually 5, sometimes 1) the ISP's monitor makes a connection to either your switch port (snmp) or directly to your machine (managed servers)
They take a reading of current useage (its really much much more indept on what it reads, but for simplicity just think of it as a raw usage figure)
They take this number and store it in a database (usually a RRD, )
After storing every sample for the time period (usually monthly, some ISP's will also calculate daily and weekly for you) the calculations begin. How 95%ile is calculated is they take all of the samples, then they filter out the peaks (peak in OR peak out) they use one sample for in OR out, usually whichever is higher, some ISP's only do outbound. So you have one sample for every x minutes they poll. Then you take the top 5% or x number of samples and ignore them. The very next highest reading is what your billed on. Its not a real average, its the 95% read sample. The highest sample left is your billing, not a average of all samples.
Whats best for you?? Alot of ISP's don't let you choose what your billed on. 95%ile is probably the most popular. Next, is max thruput or capped connections. When you buy large lines like gigabit, or some ISP's like verio, your buying a capped thruput rating. Last and least popular is average. Its average in + out, and usually its more per meg than 95% because it is a true average usage.
If you run a smooth and consistant network, with few spikes, 95%ile is fine. It will alow for a couple heavy days without breaking your bank. BUT, viri or other net problems (password traders for adult sites is a common problem) can give you a heavy bill. The idea behind 95%il is that your billed on the size network you use, and alow you a bit of room to flex if you need to transfer a large file one day.
Running on a capped or max thruput line is just as good as 95%ile, but you dont have the luxury of the bursting now and then. Usually, its a few % cheaper per meg aswell. Industry 'standard' usually allows you a 25% burst on a capped line, but if your bursting heavily over your cap, you can expect your network proformance to degrade (i.e. game servers lag)
Good luck finding a ISp billing you on an average usage. If they are, you can spike to 80M one day, and average out over the month to only a couple megs. most ISP's wont let this happen, and the ones that do charge you for it heavily.
Well, thats ISp billing in a nutshell. If it sounds confusing, its cause it is
You can be billed on any of these ways, and even a combonation. Its all up to the network engineer and CEO's on how they manage there network.. Some companys are flexable, most are not.
If you dont mind, where are you buying from and what are they charging you??
I don't come here to advertise my business or whore off the forums. But I am always curious to watch the market.
I get mad traffic to my site... :o
Why not? I do it..
I still have the game servers, and the 1u/1meg guys, but really my business is managment of good sized networks and larger clients.
Odds of finding one of them on here is.. low.. and usually they have already decided where they want to host. I would have to say that the business i target need more of a trust relationship than a cool forum dude
It's just not worth it to me to target $5 hosting clients. I would rather have 100 premium clients paying a premium price, than 1000 clients and try to run a cut-rate colo-shop. You do get what you pay for, and I wouldnt ever think of running a sub-standard business to get more sales. In the end, those are the ones you see going out of business. *cough*XGamer*cough*
If all else fails, my pricing keeps the little guys out