CLOUD SECURITY AND IP SERVICES
TRAFFIC UTILISATION: OVERVIEW
TRAFFIC UTILISATION
Understanding the traffic that is delivered to and from hosted servers, in terms of the traffic cost and make-up, it is a
necessary and often overlooked task. Ultimately, the effective delivery of data to end-users or on-line clientele will
determine just how successful a web site or web-based application is. Traffic charges can contribute significantly to a
hosting solution and customers must be familiar with often misunderstood charging mechanisms, thresholds and
discount structures. It also becomes valuable to be able to track traffic usage in order to verify the charges,
understand web site growth trends and develop an accurate online-business model.
THE BENEFITS OF HOSTING A SERVER ON THE IS NETWORK
If your hosted servers are to perform properly, there are two vital questions that should be asked. Firstly: are the
servers able to deliver data in an efficient manner, across an uncongested network and without bottlenecks?
Secondly: are the traffic charges applied according to stringent and fair-measurement techniques, and are the charge
rates better than could be achieved if the server(s) were hosted in-house? The benefits listed below, that are derived
from hosting on the IS backbone, will answer these questions:

Servers make use of unlimited and unrestricted traffic: end-users can expect quick response times from
servers hosted at IS. This is because the servers are connected directly to IS’ Gigabit Internet backbone,
ensuring that there is no bottleneck between the server and the Internet. This provides a significant
advantage over servers hosted at a company’s premises, where the (often unreliable) Internet leased-line
typically imposes a bottleneck between the server and the Internet.

Audited billing mechanism provides pay-for-use model: IS has implemented a unique billing mechanism
to charge for data served by the hosted server. This system has been audited by Deloitte and Touche. IS
measures both incoming and outgoing traffic utilisation and only bills for the greater of the two.

Economies of scale permit savings for higher traffic volumes: clients serving large volumes of data
benefit from a cheaper per-Gigabyte (GB) rate. The higher the threshold chosen, the cheaper the cost per
GB of data.
UNDERSTANDING THE TRAFFIC UTILISATION CHARGES
Each hosting solution offered by IS Hosting includes a monthly traffic threshold, the charge for which is bundled with
the solution’s total cost. Customers are free to decide beforehand whether this threshold represents a suitable ceiling
for the total traffic they anticipate, and accordingly revise the figure upward (or downward). The monthly threshold is
simply a charging price break. In other words, traffic volumes below the threshold accrue a fixed per-Gigabyte
charge, and once the threshold is exceeded, each Megabyte served is charged at the excess rate. It is thus in the
customer’s interest to set the threshold as high as possible, or at the maximum anticipated traffic volume in order to
benefit from the cheaper per-GB rate. The table below shows the charges:
Measurement
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CLOUD SECURITY AND IP SERVICES
TRAFFIC UTILISATION: OVERVIEW
IS has made a significant investment in the design and development of a traffic measurement system that reports
traffic utilisation accurately and that delivers real-time statistics and graphs live on the Internet via the IS Customer
Zone. The system has been audited by Deloitte and Touche’s Enterprise Risk Services division and found to be
completely accurate. (A copy of the audit can be arranged on request).
TRAFFIC UTILISATION REPORTING AND GRAPHS
All traffic statistics are published live to the IS Customer Zone. Statistics and graphs are as follows:
Traffic utilisation statistics
Traffic utilisation statistics available via the Customer Zone indicate the data volume served per IP-address or server
(or the total) for the current month or for the preceding six months. The data is live to the last 10 minutes.
Traffic utilisation graphs
Traffic utilisation graphs (see diagram below) show the data volume served per day per server for the current month
and for the preceding six months. The data is live to the last 10 minutes.
Protocol graphs
The protocol graphs show the traffic volumes per protocol over a particular period.
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Confidential and subject to IS terms and conditions
CLOUD SECURITY AND IP SERVICES
TRAFFIC UTILISATION: OVERVIEW
The protocol selector
The preceding protocol graphs are generated using the protocol selector - shown below. Each protocol required on
the graph can be selected by using the appropriate check-box. In this way, customers can carefully monitor protocol
usage for each server and understand what proportion of the total traffic volume is contributed to by each protocol.
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Confidential and subject to IS terms and conditions