Best of the ISP-Lists

Quality Versus Quantity

Members of the ISP-Webhosting list point out that there's more to good colocation than a fat pipe. Bandwidth has quality as well as quantity, and it pays to appreciate both.

[December 26, 2000]

On the ISP-Webhosting list in December, MH inquired,

"A colocation company I recently looked at informed me that their entire facility is connected to the Internet through a single 10Mbps line. Is this fast enough for a colo facility, and if not, what sort of line should I be looking for?"

A small but vocal minority urged MH to run, not walk, in the other direction:

[GJM contended] "A single 10Mbps line is simply wrong. Do yourself a favor and look for someone different; you're asking for trouble if you go with this group. That is a very small pipe for a colo facility."

[JK agreed] "That doesn't sound too good. I know that most of our facilities have multiple OC3 connections to them."

[RH added] "10Mbps is crappy! Look for multiple DS3's at the very least."

Other respondents noted that there are a number of factors to keep in mind:

[BS offered] "All other factors being equal, size is not as important as utilization is. A server on a well-managed 10Mbps connection will run circles around a server on a saturated 100Mbps connection. While connectivity is important, choosing a colo facility on the size of their connection alone is a mistake. At the very least, I'd say giving them a point or two for honesty would be in order, and that the next question to ask is just how much of that 10Mbps connection is available for your traffic."

[TA agreed] "It depends on how much traffic already travels over that line. If you are the only one using it, I'm sure it's more than enough! Remember, though, if they have oversold their bandwidth, then you are going to be slowed down no matter what. And if that one line goes down, you're out of luck. I would take redundancy over speed any day."

[DL observed] "Quite a few of our bandwidth customers are initially very concerned about how much bandwidth we have available for them, then they park servers in our racks that sustain less than 12Kbps. For these folks, a well-managed colo company with smaller pipes might have been a more economical choice."

[AMS added] "There is a general misconception that the larger the pipe, the faster the connection. That is just not true. When you drive on the highway, do you get there faster whether you travel on a six-lane highway versus a twelve-lane highway? Of course not; the difference is the congestion, not the width (i.e. bandwidth). Interestingly enough, everyone likes to talk about their bandwidth size, but no one ever mentions the utilization percentage."

—End