Bare metal and virtual machines - which one is better? Get to know the differences between the two and determine what suits your needs!
Bare metal vs virtual machines - which one is better? As with most cloud technology, there's more than one option when it comes to servers. The original server type is bare-metal, while later innovations led to virtual machine servers. Although a bare-metal server is used with a hypervisor to form the virtual servers there is a common debate as to which server type is preferable. At VEXXHOST, we offer both bare-metal and virtual machines. Let us delve into the details and find some of the key differences between the two.
Server Dedication
One of the significant differences between a bare-metal server and a virtual machine server is the level of dedication that exists with clients. A bare-metal server is a physical server that is dedicated to a single customer, meaning that they aren't shared between tenants. Virtual machine servers, on the other hand, can be shared among multiple tenants through the hypervisor which can create multiple operating system instances and, as a result, numerous isolated virtual server envrionments.
Cost
When comparing pricing, the first thing that should be noted is that the billing differs between bare-metal and virtual machine servers. For bare-metal servers, the customer is billed a consistent amount on a monthly basis for the hosting, while virtual machine servers follow a predetermined billing period and only cost the customer for the resources used. Secondly, bare-metal servers are traditionally more expensive than virtual ones, however, this can be dependent on whether they're being used for enterprise-grade workloads over a sustained period of time.
Performance & Security
In the realm of performance, there is no argument as to whether or not bare-metal servers can harness more processing power than virtual servers although the margin may not be as noticeable as expected. With virtual machine servers, they have the ability to scale up and down, as needed, almost instantly.
The primary difference between the security of bare-metal servers and virtual servers is their tenancy. As mentioned previously, bare-metal servers are single-tenant while virtual machine servers are multi-tenant. Through this aspect alone, bare-metal servers are considered more secure and private.
Making the Call
As with most cloud technologies, there isn't necessarily only one right solution for the bare metal vs virtual machines question, it largely depends on your needs. For example, a company in the financial industry would benefit from a bare-metal server due to its consistent enterprise-grade workloads and security requirements. In contrast, a retailer may be better suited for virtual machine servers to manage fluctuating traffic and control costs.
At VEXXHOST, we provide close to limitless possibilities in creating and managing cloud environments, with three foundational infrastructure components - bare metal, virtual machines, and Kubernetes - often all in one environment. For many of our clients, our OpenStack-based public and private clouds are the preferred choices because of their highly scalable and secure nature. Furthermore, VEXXHOST's experience in consulting to work for you in ensuring your cloud infrastructure is optimized to meet your needs.
Take advantage of our limited-time deal just to set up a one-time, OpenStack-based private cloud deployment - at 50% off! The cloud will be running on the latest OpenStack release, Wallaby, which allows you to run Bare Metal, Kubernetes, and VMs in the same environment, and can be deployed in your own data centers with your hardware. Furthermore, all these will be deployed and tested in under a month!
What are you waiting for? Learn more!
Would you like to know about how you can get Virtual Machines, Bare Metal and Kubernetes in one environment? Download our white paper and get reading!
Virtual Machines, Bare Metal and Kubernetes: All in One Environment!
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