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Aggregate Transfer Billing Method vs. 95th Percentile Billing Method
Silicon Valley Web Hosting charges Virtual Dedicated (Shared) Hosting
customers only for the bandwidth utilized in a given period (GB/month) using
what is commonly known as the aggregate transfer billing method. For
customers that use large amounts of bandwidth (Mbps) SVWH uses what is
commonly referred to as the 95th percentile billing method. This method
takes readings of inbound and outbound bandwidth utilization on regular
intervals. The larger bandwidth utilization of the two is recorded. At the
end of the billing period, the highest 5% of the readings are discarded and
the customer is charged for a full month of utilization at the 95% mark. To
compare the two methods it is important to know that 1 Mbps = 324 GB/month.
The 95th percentile billing method provides protection against short traffic spikes and is well suited for websites that experience consistently high bandwidth throughput, whereas the aggregate transfer billing method charges for the amount of data transferred and is well suited for websites that maintain lower levels of bandwidth utilization with few traffic spikes.
For low bandwidth utilization sites the aggregate transfer billing method is ideal as it results in lower bandwidth charges. Referring to the graph, in the 95th percentile method you would be charged for bandwidth utilization at a rate of 377 kbps sustained across the entire month. Using the aggregate transfer billing method, you would instead be charged for the equivalent of 196 kpbs, when converted as per GB transferred.
Silicon Valley Web Hosting only charges its Virtual Dedicated (shared) Hosting customers for outbound bandwidth only , meaning that routine site maintenance that requires uploads are not counted against your bandwidth allocation. Conversely, for customers who make bulk bandwidth purchases in Mbps this is unnecessary because the 95th percentile billing method is based only upon traffic used in the direction of most use.
Silicon Valley Web Hosting Policy Regarding 95th Percentile Bandwidth Utilization
On a monthly basis, Customer purchases a minimum amount of committed bandwidth for each Service for the full specified term. To account for the instances that Customers traffic bursts over the minimum committed amount of bandwidth, the Company utilizes a billing method referred to as the 95th Percentile Rule as defined below.
- Company shall invoice Customer on a monthly basis in advance for the minimum committed bandwidth at the rate set by this Order Form. The Companys SNMP bandwidth monitoring will sample (record a data point reflecting how much bandwidth Customer is utilizing at that particular instance) the inbound and outbound for each Service connection every 5 minutes and store those samples for a period of one month.
- At the end of the month, all the data samples for the inbound and outbound are collected and sorted from highest to lowest individually. The highest 5% of each the inbound and outbound are discarded, and the next highest remaining data sample on either the inbound or outbound is the 95th Percentile number. This number is used as the basis for computation of any additional charges for that particular month of Service over the minimum committed bandwidth. If the 95th Percentile number falls below the monthly minimum committed amount, no additional charges will be assessed.
Example:
Customer has committed to 1.0 Mbps per month. Company gathers all data samples for the month of Service and sorts them from highest to lowest discarding the top 5%. For purpose of example the 95th Percentile for the month of Service was 75 Mbps. Company will bill Customer for the additional charges of 75 Mbps less the previously invoiced 20 Mbps of contractually committed bandwidth, or 55 Mbps. The 55Mbps of over usage will be billed at the rate stated in this Order Form. Further, if the 95th Percentile calculation resulted in a number less than 1Mbps no additional charges would occur for that month.
The following is the formula based on a thirty (30)-day month:
5% of 8640 Maximum Samples/Month = 432 Samples/Month discarded. The highest remaining data sample in the inbound or outbound would be the 95th Percentile.
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