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I have been doing a lot of research on colocation lately and have gained a lot of understanding in regards to how it all works and the different prices for various parts of colocation.

Overall a lot of things like racks, power, etc all seem to be competetively priced and in a similar range. For example, pretty much all power seems to be about $10-$12 per amp wherever I get quotes from.

What I have yet to understand is the variation in bandwidth costs. I see this across the board but especially when you go from 10Mbps to 100Mbps. I have seen companies charge $900 for a full rack at 1Mbps and different companies charge $1,000 for a full rack at 100Mbps. Other companies charge $2500 for a full rack at 100Mbps.

My main question is what is the difference between these companies? I am assuming obviously their is a quality standpoint but does quality boil down to 2-3 times the price for the same thing? Is it worth it to go spend $2500 for one of these "premium" providers? Or does it make sense to go for a more affordable provider like Continuum that still seems to have great reviews.

Thanks

KyleVan
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1 Answers1

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The 'is it worth it' answer lies always in the eyes of the beholder.

You will pay different price for bandwidth since there is different quality. You should ask the datacenter/colocation providers questions such as :

  • Is it a neutral colocation center (get another upstream provider, or they only offer 'their solution') ?
  • Who are you network peers? (Some are known to take political stand, other to offer cheap bandwidth but with higher latencies, etc.)
  • What are the 'preferred outgoing routes' toward 'insert your main market here'?
  • Can you provide IPv4 and/or IPv6 IPs ? How much for a /24, /23, /22.. etc.
  • Can I advertise my route through another provider? (As example, for anycast)
  • Do you provide 2 upstream link (one live, one standby) ?
  • What are their redundancy level in their infrastructure (dual connected?)

Etc.

CloudWeavers
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  • Great questions to ask thank you. Thats perfect. I don't mind paying for quality but I want to make sure I am paying for real quality a good salesman. – KyleVan Jan 03 '12 at 15:04