Mohammed NaserOur bare metal cloud omnibus aims to bring you all of the valuable content we wrote on the topic as an accessible one-stop solution. Read on.
Bare metal clouds offer a variety of benefits to users – there's little latency, better availability of resources, and root access for tenants. All of these factors often lead to an improvement in overall performance.
Over the years, we have published a lot of content on bare metal cloud and related topics. This omnibus aims to bring you all of those valuable, informational content together so that you can access it all from a one-stop solution. Each section is linked to a detailed blog where you can find more information about the said topic. Here's what you need to know about bare metal. Let's start from the basics.
What is Bare Metal?
A bare-metal server is a physical computer server that is dedicated to a single tenant. It comes without the additional virtualization/hypervisor layer that is typical in a cloud-based infrastructure. In bare-metal environments, even though the user rents the server from a provider, every decision regarding how the server can be used lies with the renter, including the OS. The term 'bare metal' distinguishes between servers that utilize virtualization and cloud hosting and often run multiple tenants in a single environment.
The significant benefits of bare metal servers include:
- Complete control of the underlying infrastructure
- Dedicated resources
- Customizability
- Cost-effectiveness
- Security
The growth trend in the bare metal cloud market is directly proportional to the adoption of cloud computing. The surge in data centers, growth in colocation services, and rise in cloud adoption motivate businesses to invest in the bare metal cloud. Not to mention, certain other growth drivers include the increasing significance of data security and the rising adoption of advanced cloud services. Superior authentication support is another factor that leads enterprises to opt for bare metal.
Bare Metal Cloud vs. Dedicated Servers
Dedicated servers are computing machines that have physical components such as processors, RAM, and storage. Bare metal cloud servers have a similar dedicated nature to users, and both are often compared with each other. However, they are still part of a public cloud server system, where the user accesses the server space and hardware via a cloud provider's service. The differences between both come in terms of scalability, deployment, performance, and pricing.
In short, bare metal servers are essentially dedicated servers with a cloud model delivery. Both models have their merits according to individual use cases; many modern enterprises prefer bare metal clouds because they are flexible and bring the advantages of both dedicated and virtual cloud environments.
Bare Metal or Hypervisor? Finding the Right Solution
Bare metal or hypervisor? Which of these infrastructure models will give your business the best results? Advocates of each side bring up various advantages and disadvantages of both to relay their point across.
A hypervisor allows for the instant creation of virtual machines (VMs) and provides more resources necessary for dynamic workloads. This property is an advantage over bare metal, where new physical server setups are not as easy to procure. Another advantage is that hypervisors can run several VMs simultaneously on the same physical machine, leading to more cost-efficiency than underused physical servers often running on a single operating system.
However, not every company needs virtualization or multiple VMs. For many users, smaller machines with a single operating system are more efficient and ideal in taking care of their business. Overall, whether bare metal or hypervisor is the right solution for your business depends on the nature and size of your business.
Why Should You Deploy Kubernetes on Bare Metal?
In recent times, it has been common practice to deploy your Kubernetes in virtual machines hosted on a virtualized platform. If you are looking for a more economical solution for container orchestration in your cloud ecosystem, you can deploy Kubernetes on bare metal as well! Through this approach, no virtualized layer is a part of the cloud stack. Each cloud is unique to its user. Depending upon your business requirements, your cloud infrastructure will differ in terms of its architecture and design. Thus, it is not conclusive that Kubernetes on bare metal infrastructure is a one-size-fits-all solution. Take the time to analyze your enterprise goals before deciding on the architecture of your cloud ecosystem.
How Bare Metal Clusters Help Apps via Container Infrastructure
Bare metal clusters of containers as infrastructural choices are subject to much debate against container nodes on VMs. The core benefit of a bare metal cluster environment for developers is the ease of coding. There are very few uncertainties compared to other hosting spaces. Other significant advantages of bare metal containers include more storage than what users get on VMs, removal of overhead due to multiple virtualization layers, better hosting for micro server architectures, faster deployment, more effective container environments, and the facilitation of an efficient, unified platform altogether.
Furthermore, functionalities similar to virtual servers, such as API enablement, self-service, flexible billing, on-demand nature, etc., are also available for bare metal clusters. They also reduce overall costs and are easy to scale according to changing requirements.
Containers on Bare Metal or VMs? Analyzing the Options
Are containers on bare metal the better choice or containers on virtual machines (VMs)? Which infrastructure is better for deployment? Running containers on bare metal can give you the same advantages as running them on VMs, but without the drawbacks. Since there is no hypervisor layer, bare metal provides improved performance, full access to the hardware, and optimal resource use. Containers on bare metal also have some advantages that usually were only possible with VMs – application isolation and deploying applications within portable environments allowing movement between hosts.
With all these advantages, why don't most companies just run containers on bare metal? Here are the reasons behind it.
- Difficulty in physical server upgrades
- The need to create the environment from scratch during replacement
- Most clouds prefer VMs over bare metal
- Not all hardware/software configurations are supported
- Operating system dependency of containers
Overall, both bare metal and VMs are highly beneficial models to run containers. Orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes allow running both smoothly enough. Companies analyze the pros mentioned above and cons of the environments and choose the right solution for them.
Bare Metal Cloud with VEXXHOST Cloud Solutions
Bare metal is a highly beneficial model for users with specific requirements needing complete control of the environment. At VEXXHOST, we provide close to limitless possibilities in creating and managing cloud environments, with three foundational components of infrastructure – bare metal, virtual machines, and Kubernetes.
As a reputed IaaS provider, we ensure that our clients get the best type of cloud storage services for their data. Our storage services include all the styles – object storage, block storage, and file storage, using an open source platform, removing vendor-lock-ins. At VEXXHOST, we provide cloud solutions for a multitude of clients worldwide. We provide OpenStack-based clouds, including public clouds and dedicated and highly secure private cloud environments, ensuring utmost security and agility.
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 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!