Traffic VS Bandwidth in DigitalOcean Context

June 13, 2016 1.3k

FAQ DigitalOcean Ubuntu

Hey friends,

I'm a prospective Droplet buyer, referring to the pricing plans here.
While everything else seems clear, I fail to understand what exactly the Transfer volume refers to (1/2/3/4/5 GB)
Through various threads on the forum I only gathered an inconclusive mix responses of it referring to either the bandwidth or the traffic (outgoing/incoming).

It'd be much appreciated if someone can shed light on the various terminologies and what they mean respectively (bandwidth, outgoing/incoming traffic) and how they are monitored in DigitalOcean.

For example, if I host a website heavy on media content (locally-hosted images/videos). In a month 1000 unique visitors visited my site 1 time each and glanced through around 10 photos (~10mb each). Does that mean that (1000 * 10 * 10)MB or 100GB of 'Transfer' volume is used or is the meter measured differently?

Thank you!

2 Answers

gparent June 13, 2016

Transfer is the amount, bandwidth is the speed. And yes, people use it incorrectly all the time.

MonaLisa June 13, 2016

Appreciate the clarification gparent,

However, would the bandwidth be directly affected by the amount of traffic on the site?
I doubt this would be a problem for me anytime soon but at what level of traffic would there be a significant/observable slow in the server based on your experience?

Thank you.
- MichaelOjeda June 13, 2016
  
  You shouldn't have a problem with bandwidth and performance, if you configure your web servers correctly. Nginx is a great at handling a lot of requests; it can handle 10000 concurrent connections without fail! You can also setup load balancing wtih nginx so you don't suffer performance issues. Check out this tutorial for load balancing. https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/understanding-nginx-http-proxying-load-balancing-buffering-and-caching
  
  Understanding Nginx HTTP Proxying, Load Balancing, Buffering, and Caching
  Nginx is a high performance reverse proxy server and web server. In this guide, we will explore Nginx's http proxying and load balancing capabilities. We will cover how Nginx can use buffers and caching to improve the proxying experience for clients.

MichaelOjeda June 13, 2016

Yes, transfer would refer to the traffic. However, traffic limits are not currently being enforce. I'm not sure when this be changed.

MonaLisa June 13, 2016

Hi Michael,

By "traffic limits are not currently being enforce" are you referring to say, there are no incurred fees (the $0.02/GB surcharge) at the moment if we exceed the stated cap for the respective plans?

Thanks!
- MichaelOjeda June 13, 2016
  
  Yup, that's right (for now)! Check out this answer.
  https://www.digitalocean.com/community/questions/do-monthly-traffic-limits-apply-when-migrating

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