Colo Search....Again

[rnavarro]

Hey Guys,

So I got an email from my current colo host about raising rates for IPv4 allocations:

Dear Valued Client -

As you may or may not know, ARIN has been in Phase 4 of their IPv4 Countdown to address space depletion for some time. As a refresher, we've included a recap of ARIN's IPv4 depletion countdown phases at the end of this message.

The implications to service providers such as Datacate are manifold. With the transition of each phase, ARIN scrutiny of IP utilization and justification has grown more stringent and net sizes approved has grown much smaller, with a higher rejection rate. Securing additional IPv4 addresses to allocate for future customer requirements may now involve 3rd party brokering services, which greatly increased our cost for this resource. Additionally, and independent of IPv4 depletion considerations, addressing security and auditing requirements that are increasingly becoming the norm for providers such as Datacate has significantly impacted the cost of providing IP connectivity to our clients on an ongoing basis.

To put it as plainly as possible, we can no longer offer liberal amounts of free IPv4 address space to our clients as we have in the past. This policy change applies to new allocations, as well as existing allocations previously issued to clients.

We've assigned an MRC to each IPv4 net size as follows:

Net MRC
-------- --------
IPv4 /30 $11.00
IPv4 /29 $17.00
IPv4 /28 $31.00
IPv4 /27 $58.00
IPv4 /26 $113.00
IPv4 /25 $221.00
IPv4 /24 $439.00
In order to make this transition as easy on existing clients as possible, we've calculated an allowance to be applied against the new MRCs. Below is a breakdown of how this policy will apply to your billing:

NET BILL INCREASE: $59.00

Starting with your next billing cycle, you will see the new address space billing policy applied to your invoice. If you have IP net(s) assigned to you that you are not currently using, you do have the option of returning the IP nets to Datacate in order to reduce the impact to your bill - please open a support ticket advising us of which net(s) you would like to return.

From ARIN:The Countdown Plan has four phases, and ARIN is currently in Phase Four:

• Phase One began in February 2011 when ARIN received its last /8 from IANA.
• Phase Two began in September 2012 when ARIN reached three remaining /8 equivalents.
• Phase Three began in August 2013 when ARIN reached two remaining /8 equivalents.
• Phase Four began in April 2014 when ARIN reached one remaining /8 equivalent.

More info on IPv4 depletion: IPv4 address exhaustion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm not sure I buy their reasoning, but it is what it is....

I like Datacate a lot, but it's a 30% increase in my hosting costs which makes hosting closer to home a bit more appealing (Datacate is based out of Sacramento).

Do any of you guys host in or around San Jose/Fremont/Oakland?

Any good recommendation on colo hosts?

I'm going to try the usual places, WHT and QuoteColo but I figured I'd ask here because....why not

Moon shot....anyone interested in potentially splitting a full cabinet?
I have 1/4 cabinet worth of gear and a buddy of mine wants to get 3-5U of space for his gear.

 

[neo]

So in order to get new customers they are raising the costs on their current customers? I don't blame you for leaving.

 

[rnavarro]

Yeah, not only that.

I asked about renumbering some of my IP ranges since I don't use the entire range and can consolidate down to smaller ranges.

To do that, it's a $75 one time fee....ouch

 

[NetWise]

I don't mean to ruffle any feathers, but would like to play Devil's Advocate...

- IPv4 address are becoming more rare, so not just new clients but also existing need to pay more as demand goes up and supply goes down. That only makes sense.

- the number of companies I've worked for or with that we're massively wasteful using /24 when they needed a whole 9 addresses was astounding. It's amazing what people will waste when 'it's free'

- $75 one time charge to make all the routing and configure changes and coordination and documentation required to reduce a subnet allocation sounds pretty fair at my own rates.

They're basically saying they're going to charge $2/IP in a range and half an hours work to make changes if needed.

And you're going to go through all the work and effort to move somewhere else and the costs associated to... Continue to over reserve wasteful IP's? At least until THAT provider also has to do this, as it's not like they're making any more IPv4 addresses.

I'm a cheap Ukrainian at heart so I like as much free as the next guy or more. But what they're asking here doesn't seem overly unreasonable? Unpleasant perhaps.

 

[rnavarro]

No feathers ruffled from me.

That's definitely a good perspective, one I hadn't considered.

I feel like the per IP costs are a little on the high side, at around $2 each, but that might just be an economy of scale thing.

I actually use about 87% of my allocated range for various servers and services, so I wouldn't consider myself a "wasteful" customer when it comes to IPs.

But you're right, this policy will definitely help curb the "waste"

The cost increase definitely tips the scale in favor of moving closer to home though. I love to tinker with my gear, and not having to make the 1.5-2h drive each way to the servers is definitely appealing.

My GF doesn't share the same enthusiasm there though

 

[TechIsCool]

@NetWise I totally agree with your statement. Its going to cost you more money than 75 dollars to move it.

@rnavarro
Sure maybe you can find a better place closer which make it worthwhile but if this is the only issue you have with them I might still stick around.

Also remember that you can Load Balance based on DNS address so it could be cheaper to actually just buy a few domain names and point them locally with a LB.

 

[Diavuno]

I'm with Sonic.net in Santa Rosa.... frankly though I'm looking for something in the bay too...

 

[rnavarro]

Well, the stars ended up aligning for me.

A buddy approached me today about some colo space.

So we're going to split the cost of a full rack at hurricane electric in fremont2, right next to @Patrick 's gear

Ends up being cheaper for me and we have more space than we know what to do with

 

[Diavuno]

I'm about ready to sign up for HE too...

Make sure you ask them install the square holes.

 

[rnavarro]

I'm about ready to sign up for HE too...

Make sure you ask them install the square holes.

Yeah we're going to do the square holes.

I think I read that the racks are 30" deep?

My concern is whether or not a C6100 will fit.

The spec page says that the server is 31.7" deep which has me a bit concerned:
PowerEdge C6100 Rack Server Details | Dell

They offer 36" racks but they charge more for that too....of course


P.S. we're definitely down to split the cost in 3 if you want to jump in on this

 

[Patrick]

Sorry guys. I was away on an out-and-back to Chicago yesterday (landed 23 hours after take off. I saw your e-mail @rnavarro and the HE racks I believe are 30" (inexpensive ones) or 36" (cost a bit more).

Square holes are $200 one time charge. Also, they are not nice square holed posts. For example, there are no lines/ numbers demarking each U so you have to count holes.

Unless you have a lot of short depth gear, get the deeper cabinet. I have had several issues already even in the deeper cabinet with boxes "just" fitting to the point I have to move the ZeroU PDU often.

Maybe @rnavarro and @Diavuno would want to split a cab?

 

[T_Minus]

I could use some space at HE if you guys do want to share Just message me.

 

[Patrick]

Hey BTW - one other idea for you guys, depending on how many people are doing this:

The 208V 20A/ 30A racks are more: I think In the $1350/ mo range but with a hefty setup ~ $1000 + 200 for square holes. That is over 3x the usable power though and power supplies running on 208V are going to be more efficient.

Unless you are running Xeon D/ E3, C2000 in their own 1U chassis + some empty space, you are unlikely to run out of room before power.

If you do get the one next to the STH one, (you can ask Anna if you have a tour as there is a magnet on it) we can probably do a cross connect if needed. Setting up your own account gives you 100mbps. Me adding a rack does not add to the bandwidth pool.

 

[T_Minus]

Def. interested in more power!!!!!!!

Already determined my 8 Nodes are not cost effective to run vs multi-proc higher core system for power!! Shufffle time.

 

[rnavarro]

Just an update from my end, Datacate is not playing nice with me.

So I'm not sure I'll be able to move out.

They're increasing my rate by 30% or $60/mo mid contract and basically just saying too bad, so sad, suck it up.

Additionally I'm in a 1 year contract with them that renewed on June 29th so my hands are a little tied there.

They don't seem to want to budge on anything, but if that's the way they want to be I don't really want to stick around.

I'm going to put my thinking cap on to see what I can do about the situation, but it's not looking good for me.

My buddy still wants to do a colo thing so maybe we can just set it up with you guys.

 

[Diavuno]

Did they raise the rates in the new contract or a month or two after renewal?

 

[NetWise]

No kidding. If they renewed your contract you'd think you're good with today's costs till it renews again. If not, what's the point of their contracts.

 

[Diavuno]

pretty much.

if you renewed at $100 and now they are demanding $130 thats a breach and they have to honor the contract @ $100 or let you go.

 

[NetWise]

Unfortunately, depending on demand they may be happy to let him go and put someone else in for more. But I'm old bitter and jaded. Something about working in IT

 

[Patrick]

Yea the places I have been dealing with recently have been in the 2-10 rack minimum range. I could see a lot of folks running datacenters moving to this model and letting resellers handle sub cabinet.