Requesting evaluation access for a proof of concept

What this is

How to trial a ByteDC service before you buy it.

Evaluation access is for when you want to prove that a service does what you need, on your own workload, before committing budget to it. It is the normal route for services that are gated by account level, and it is the normal route for Managed Kubernetes today.

Before you start

You need a verified ByteDC account. You do not need funds in your wallet, because evaluation access is requested rather than ordered.

Have two things ready, because they make the conversation much shorter:

1. What you want to prove. For example, that your existing application runs on the platform, or that two of your services can talk to each other inside a cluster.

2. Roughly how much resource you need. Quota during an evaluation is deliberately small, so if your test genuinely needs more than a small allowance, say so at the request stage rather than after you hit a ceiling.

Steps

Step 1. Open Evaluation Access

Choose Evaluation Access in the main sidebar.

This is a request form rather than a product page, so the portal hands you off to the form and then brings you back. That redirect is expected behaviour, not a fault.

Screenshot needed: Evaluation Access in the sidebar.

Step 2. Complete the request

Fill in your details, the service you want to evaluate, and what you intend to test.

Screenshot needed: evaluation access request form.

Step 3. Submit and wait for contact

Submit the form. A member of the ByteDC team picks it up and contacts you.

Step 4. Sign the evaluation access letter

ByteDC issues an evaluation access letter covering the trial. This is the document that sets out what you get, for how long, and on what terms. Both sides sign it.

Content pending: the evaluation access letter is being finalised and signed off internally at ByteDC. Once approved, the letter is attached to this page for download.

Step 5. Get your environment

Once the letter is in place, ByteDC provisions your evaluation environment and confirms it is ready.

For Managed Kubernetes you receive a cluster with a namespace assigned to you, and depending on what you asked for it may already have a small test application running on a public endpoint.

What you should see when it works

You can sign in to the portal and see the evaluated service available to you rather than locked. For Kubernetes you can see your cluster, and you can deploy into your namespace.

What is different during an evaluation

An evaluation environment is intentionally smaller than a production one. For Managed Kubernetes the trial ceiling is 2 vCPU, 4 GB of RAM, and a maximum of 10 pods.

These limits exist so that a proof of concept does not consume production scale resource. They are not the limits of the platform, and they are raised for paying customers. See Proof of concept limits and what changes in production for the full list of what differs.

If your evaluation needs a larger allowance than the standard one, that is a conversation with your account manager rather than a setting you change yourself.

How a trial becomes a paid service

When the evaluation succeeds, you move to a normal order. Configure the plan you want, generate a quotation, confirm it and pay, exactly as described in Placing your first order, start to finish.

Do not assume your evaluation environment automatically becomes your production environment. Confirm with your account manager what carries over and what needs rebuilding, and plan for rebuilding.

Common problems

Evaluation Access took me to a different website. Expected. The request form is hosted separately, so you get redirected out and back.

A service page says it is not available on my account level. That is the gate evaluation access exists to open. Submit the request, or use Contact Sales on that page if you would rather go straight to buying.

I hit a capacity message during my trial. You reached the evaluation quota. See Scaling pods and understanding your quota for what the message means and what to do about it.

Nobody has contacted me. Requests are handled by people, not automatically. If it has been more than a couple of working days, follow up through your usual ByteDC contact.