Bare Metal vs Dedicated Server Hosting

In the event you’re seeking to grow what you are promoting, expanding within the digital landscape appears to be an incredible solution for engaging a broader set of users, automating your services, and increasing business efficiency.

Nonetheless, digitalization comes with security challenges since it exposes you to the world via multiple attack surfaces. In truth, a 2023 Verizon report found that external actors cause 83% of information breaches.

The answer to those digital security issues? Use a hosting product that minimizes the attack surfaces and offers robust security infrastructure. 

For instance, as a substitute of shared hosting with noisy neighbors, you may turn to single-tenant servers, which dedicate your complete infrastructure to you. 

That said, which single-tenant hosting option is best for you: bare metal or dedicated server? 

We’ll enable you to find the reply to that and more with this guide. 

A dedicated server, or a dedicated physical server, is a form of hosting solution that dedicates a complete physical machine to a single tenant or user. In brief, you’ve gotten exclusive access to the physical server’s hardware, including RAM, CPU, storage, and bandwidth. 

Since a dedicated server doesn’t share server resources with some other tenant, it provides the isolation that you must protect customer data and comply with relevant data security standards. 

Plus, since you’ve gotten access to the physical infrastructure, you may customize it by installing your individual operating system (OS) and software applications without having to contact the hosting provider. 

That said, most hosting providers offer limited customization on the subject of the physical infrastructure. If, for instance, you require a dedicated server with a particular, cutting-edge Intel processor, chances are you’ll either not get it or should wait a good little bit of time. 

Alternatively, you may go for a dedicated hosting provider, like Liquid Web, that provides dedicated servers built to your exact requirements. 

A bare metal server can also be a physical server that provides exclusive access to a single tenant and user with none virtualization, because it doesn’t include any hypervisor installed.

That said, a bare metal server is a contemporary tackle traditional dedicated servers that comes with more flexibility and customization, which is why it’s also called a bare metal cloud. 

As an example, you may depend on bare metal servers to provision extra resources when required without having to attend weeks or months since you’ve gotten access to immediately deployable resources from the hosting provider. 

Besides that, bare metal servers are typically premium solutions, so additionally they include the newest offerings when it comes to hardware specifications, including the latest Intel processors, NVMe SSDs (nonvolatile memory express solid state drives), and DDR4 RAM. 

Each bare metal cloud and dedicated servers are single-tenant, physical servers, so there aren’t many differences in configuration. As an alternative, their differences lie in how hosting providers package these two servers. 

The hardware resources you wish on your IT infrastructure vary on a regular basis. As an example, you will have high resource demands in the course of the day and lower needs at night. If you wish to save on IT costs, you wish your IT system to provision only the computing resources it requires. 

That said, you may only go for such quick provisioning with bare metal servers since hosting providers offer them with immediately deployable resources. In contrast, dedicated servers often require a lead time of weeks or months to vary their configuration, so that they can’t be used to provision resources on the fly. 

Bare metal server plans often offer a high degree of customization for CPU, RAM, storage, and network requirements. You’ll be able to specify the precise set of specs you wish, and the hosting provider will provide a custom plan for you. 

As compared, dedicated servers also offer customizability, however it’s a bit more limited than what you get with bare metal servers. Normally, you’ve gotten a couple of preconfigured setups you may turn to. And if you happen to need a custom solution, you’ll need your host to source the parts and arrange a custom server. 

However, bare metal server plans often let you select different Intel processors and GPUs by themselves. 

Bare metal and dedicated servers often use different pricing models. Dedicated servers are almost at all times offered as a subscription service with monthly or annual plans. In contrast, bare metal plans might include a subscription plan or a pay-as-you-go model. 

To place it one other way, dedicated server hosting is often a long-term investment since you choose on a configuration and begin paying a set amount per thirty days or yr. In contrast, bare metal servers provide you with an choice to temporarily scale up your computing services when required with none long-term contract. 

While the server configurations of bare metal and dedicated servers are relatively similar, they use very different hardware since they’ve dissimilar price points. 

As an inexpensive single-tenant solution, dedicated servers use inexpensive-to-standard hardware. As an example, they might go for SATA SSDs or HDDs and older Intel Xeon processors. 

Bare metal servers, then again, are often premium offerings of a hosting provider and are available with a variety of high-end hardware selections, including NVMe SSDs, the newest Xeon Gold processors, and high-speed bandwidth connections. 

Each server configurations offer scalability in their very own way. With bare metal servers, you may vertically scale the server on demand by provisioning immediately deployable resources from the hosting provider. Nonetheless, with a dedicated server, you’ll must wait until the provider procures, configures, and sets up the upgraded dedicated server. 

In brief, bare metal servers offer automated scalability, while dedicated servers require human input. 

Dedicated server hosting is a superb solution if what you are promoting has a high, yet predictable, demand for computing resources because it’s an inexpensive hosting service. Plus, you may consider it as an isolated physical server placed in a basement away from unsecured networks, so it’s great for security isolation. 

As well as, dedicated server hosting comes with root access, so you may manage the server in line with your organizational requirements without having to go forwards and backwards with customer support. 

Listed here are a couple of applications of dedicated servers:

• Resource-intensive apps— In the event you need a server for scientific computing, rendering graphics, or running online games, you’ll need a dedicated server to sustain the high resource requirements. 
• Media streaming web sites — To supply a Netflix-like experience, you wish powerful dedicated servers that may encode, transmit, and deliver media without interruptions. 
• Video editing software — Web-based video editing platforms require high processing power and support for low-latency access to tools to make sure a smooth editing experience and facilitate collaboration.  
• Data analytics platforms — Data analytics platforms require high processor capabilities and custom hardware configurations fitted to their analytic workloads.  
• Hosting multiple web sites — A dedicated server simplifies webhosting for multiple web sites since you’ve gotten full root access to put in custom software and manage all of the web sites from a single dashboard. 

Like dedicated servers, bare metal servers also offer high performance and robust security. That said, their primary advantage over dedicated servers is scalability and adaptability since you may add or remove resources as required to fulfill changing business needs. 

Typically, bare metal servers find great use as supplementary hosting for dedicated servers. That way, you rely on the dedicated servers to fulfill the common demand and add bare metal servers to your configuration when required to cater to seasonal increases in resource requirements. 

Bare metal servers are best for applications with flexible demand but high security requirements:

• Large eCommerce stores —eCommerce stores often have unpredictable, high traffic during sales and holiday seasons and require more computing resources to serve their shoppers with no dip in customer experience.  
• Taxation SaaS — In the event you manage a taxation SaaS, you’ll have a better user load in the times and months preceding the tax deadline. 
• Payroll software — Resource demand for payroll software solutions is usually unpredictable because of variable payroll cycles, seasonal workforces, and regulatory changes. 

Each bare metal and dedicated servers are great hosting solutions for any business that needs an air gap to comply with relevant security standards. 

That said, the infrastructure is barely nearly as good because the hosting provider that provides it. In the event you’re searching for a good provider that is out there 24/7/365, prioritizes what you are promoting, comes with performance-optimized data centers, and helps you navigate the complicated problems with managing a physical server, consider Liquid Web.