IP Address Policy
IP Address Ownership
All IP addresses assigned to customers by GDS Technology remain sole and permanent property of GDS Technology, and are to be used exclusively on equipment located in the GDS Technology data-centers and connected to the GDS Technology network. If a customer cancels their services, they may not take the IPs that they used with them, rather they will be reclaimed and re-issued to other customers in the future.
Customer-Provided IP Addresses
Customers may provide their own RIR-issued IP addresses, subjected to certain technical limitations and verification of ownership that will be assessed by the networking department at time of request. IP prefixes owned by customers must be specified on a Letter of Authority (LOA) presented to GDS, and once approved will be announced via BGP on the customer’s behalf and routed to the customer’s servers. They remain the property of the customer at all times. At the customer’s request, or should the customer cancel their services, GDS will cease to announce and route those IPs. While GDS will make reasonable efforts to ensure BGP prefixes are accepted by all upstream ISPs, we cannot guarantee global reach-ability for customer-owned IPs.
Review / Justification / Efficiency Guidelines
Because IPv4 addresses are a scarce resource, RIRs require ISPs to document that they are efficiently utilizing existing assigned addresses and are planning efficient utilization of any addresses being requested. RIR policies and RFC2050 promote conservation and deter wasteful use or stockpiling of IP space. GDS is required to abide by these policies when we go to the RIRs to request more IP addresses to allocate, which means we must collect this information from our customers; failure to do so could result in any future requests we make to our RIRs being denied.
All customer IP address requests are subjected to review by GDS to ensure efficient utilization and are not guaranteed to be approved. During the review, customers will be required to provide details about how each IP address will be utilized and technical justification as to why additional unique IP addresses are needed. When applicable, GDS may take steps to verify the validity of the information provided, including network scanning and server configuration inspection.
An initial review may take up to 2 business days, and depending on size and complexity may require additional time for completion. Accounts with open
abuse tickets will have their IP requests held for processing until all abuse issues have been resolved.
Customers may continue to use assigned IP addresses as long as the usage information presented remains valid. GDS may request a review of
customer IP utilization at any time, and will reclaim resources no longer found to be efficiently utilized.
Privacy of IP Address Information
GDS is required to provide customer reassignment information for all IP addresses, and does so via publishing publicly viewable ‘rwhois’ records.
Details provided by customers during the IP address request process may be shared privately with the RIRs when needed to demonstrate GDS’s adherence to policies of efficient utilization.
