phoenixNAP Bare Metal Cloud Billing Models

Our Bare Metal Cloud offers dedicated physical hardware resources with public cloud convenience at a competitive price. Without any virtualization overhead, you can maximize the server compute power usage. As a cost-effective solution, this product enables a quick ROI for most applications.

The article will provide details for the BMC billing models so you can choose which one is right for you.

There are two ways to pay for a Bare Metal Cloud server- hourly and by reserving an instance. The available options are at the Billing section of the Deploy New Server screen. All prices are without tax.

Pay by the hour for the instance type you select in the Bare Metal Cloud portal. No contractual obligations or pre-payments are required. We will calculate your server’s usage and create an invoice at the end of the month. Therefore, you will be charged only once a month for the total number of hours for the compute resources you used.

In this billing model, each incomplete hour is charged as a full hour, even if your server runs less than 60 minutes. Whenever you deploy a server, you are billed a minimum of one hour of usage.

This on-demand, pay-by-the-hour billing model allows you to quickly spin up a new server without any upfront costs. If an application does not require 24/7 server uptime, you can keep the expenses lower by splitting infrastructure costs into smaller parts.

Every server type has a fixed hourly rate, so you can switch as needed. This means the hourly billing model is highly flexible and scalable. You can deploy a new server with the necessary compute power at a specific moment, and then shut it down when you are done. This way, you can always meet hardware resource demands.

Some of the use cases where the hourly billing model is a good fit are:

• Unexpected spikes in traffic and other sudden resource overload scenarios.
• Quick test environments.
• Short-term projects that require expensive hardware to run.

Reserve hardware resources for a specific period. Initially, only one-month reservations are available. Long-term reservations are coming soon bringing more savings.

Once you have purchased a server using a one-month reservation option, we guarantee resource availability. The configuration you select is reserved for you the whole month, even if your server is not running. This means you will have the hardware available whenever you need it.

Deleting a server does not cancel the billing for your reservation. The billing period starts the moment you deploy a server and automatically renews each month. If you disable the auto-renew option, your reservation will remain active, and you can use it until the billing end date. After that, hourly billing is active.

We send invoices for your instance on the first of each calendar month. The minimum billing period for a reservation is one month. You are charged for the full month even if you disable auto renew before the renewal date. You will be charged prorated in the first and last calendar month.

To view the list of all reservations, log into the https://bmc.phoenixnap.com and go to the Reservations page. The list shows reservations, the start and expiration dates, and other details.

To disable Auto Renew, click the actions button for the reservation in question and select Disable Auto Renew.

Entering the reason why you are canceling the reservation is optional. Click Disable Auto Renew to confirm the action.

To enable Auto Renew, follow the same steps, and click Enable Auto Renew for your reservation. This option is available until the expiration date of your reservation.

Reservations bring you discounted rates when compared to the hourly model. As the longer-term contractual obligations become available, the savings will be even larger.

This model brings certainty that your hardware resources will be available when you need them. Even when you are not using an instance, the capacity reservation remains during the whole billing period.

Server reservations are suitable for:

• Businesses that need a reliable infrastructure but do not want to have upfront costs.
• Applications where availability is the top priority.
• Constant workloads where resource capacity must be guaranteed.

To change from hourly pricing to reservation from the BMC portal:

1. Locate a server with hourly billing at the Servers page.

2. Click the Actions button in the Manage column.

3. Select Change Billing.

4. Choose a reservation length and click Confirm. The grayed-out options will be available soon.

To view the statistics and details of your hourly and reserved instances, navigate to the Billing & Usage section of the BMC portal.

On the right side, you can choose a tab to view a specific report.

In the Hourly section, you can see the details of your hourly charged instances, the unit price, quantity, and total price without tax.

In the Reserved section, you will find the details for all reservations with the same columns as in the Hourly section. Note that the reservations may show a quantity less than 1 for your first and last billing month. For example, you may see 0.56 in your report if you reserved an instance around the middle of the month.

There are two ways to deploy a new server.

• From the Servers page.
• Using an existing reservation from the Reservations section. This way, you can quickly deploy the same server type.

To deploy a server from an existing reservation:

1. Go to the Reservations page.

2. Locate the reservation you want to use.

3. Click the Actions button in the Manage column.
4. Select Deploy New Server.

5. The system sets the reservation and instance type according to the previous configuration.

6. Choose an OS and then complete the host settings.

7. Click Deploy New Server to finish the process.

This article provided the essential information on Bare Metal Cloud billing models. You should be able to make an informed decision about the billing model that suits you best. Additionally, you learned how to view the usage reports, disable the auto-renew option, and reuse an existing reservation when deploying a server.

If you need support for your Bare Metal Cloud instance, contact our support for assistance.