I am currently leasing several dedicated servers to run my hosting operation.
I am starting to think about making the move within the next 12 months to have my own small data center.
I am not a network engineer, I am a senior programmer and neem in IT for about 10 years.
I am gathering research, white papers and documentation.
I have a question regarding how much bandwidth do i really need ?
My busiest server with 200 shared sites in it has consumed the last billing period an average of in/out around 250 GB.
How do I go about using some forumla in order to calculate how much access do I need ? T1 ? T3 ? OC3 ?

Any help will be appreciated.

Investors are also considered.

Thanks

I think it would be more pragmatic for you to consider co-location/cage-rental in an already established data-center. Have a small data-center at your own location has many pluses, but minuses as well. With an established data center all the ammenities of hosting are provided, you can concentrate mor eon your clients without having to worry about local-loop, fiber cuts, replacement of switches, handling DoS/DDoS attacks, etc. power arrangements, etc.

I am sure if you do the math, it is probably more economical to host with a data-center than on your own.

I am covering all of that you mention.
I have considered it bu right now I have my own private rack in a DC.
doing the math was not that profitable to move to a cage.
I am in a position where I will have available a location with an already computer room in it.
I am not thinking about a DC with hundreds of servers.

Now, if someone can answer my actual question it will be appreciated.

thanks

Your bandwidth requirements depend on your usage at 95th percentile. Average hosting traffic works out so be that you will require 1Mb/sec of bandwidth for every 190GB/traffic a month.

If you plan on doing your own datacenter, the smallest connection I'd recommend having is 100Mb/sec delivered over FE or OC3. Note that if you can get an ethernet hand off, you will be able to utilize a layer 3 switch at your network edge. If you end up with a DS3 or OC3 circuit, you will have to invest in a routing platform that can support those telco interfaces. Even then, if you can only ingress 100Mb/sec of traffic, you will be very suspectible to getting completely hammered by a DDoS attack.

Since you are not a network engineer, you should find one who can assist you in analyzing the pros and cons of running your own small data center, from a networking perspective. If you are interested, I'd be happy to refer you to someone who is very capable and has very reasonable rates.

Make sure you have enough bandwidth to cover peak times and then some more left over.