How We Measure Client Data

Gigabytes (GBs)

Our file servers report on the number of bytes stored in each client folder. We convert that figure to gigabytes for pricing purposes.

There are two approaches for converting bytes to gigabytes. The most commonly used method is based on the metric system and uses 1000 as the factorial. Following that approach, 1000 bytes equals a kilobyte, 1000 kilobytes equals a megabyte, 1000 megabytes equals a gigabyte and so on.

The other method follows the binary system and uses factors of 2. Thus, 210 bytes equals a kilobyte, 210 kilobytes equals a megabyte, and 210 megabytes equals a gigabyte. Because two to the 10th power equals 1024, that number is sometimes used as a divisor rather than 1000.

We follow the metric standard and divide byte counts by factors of 1000. Taking this approach, if the file system reports that a client folder contains 3,430,230,145 bytes, we report it as 3.4 gigabytes (3,430 megabytes). Our practice is to round off gigabytes to the nearest decimal place.

This is the approach recommended by many standards bodies and government authorities including:

·        The International System of Units (ISU)

·        The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)

·        The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

·        The European Union (EU)

·        The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)