In terms of getting top performance from server hosting, businesses now have a choice between traditional dedicated servers and next-generation bare metal machines. How should they choose between them, let us have a look at this article and dispel myths?

What is the main difference between these two?

From a completely technical perspective, bare metal servers and traditional servers have a lot of features in common. In obvious terms, they both come as a physical box instead of virtual hardware. The lack of virtualization raises the moniker of ‘bare metal’ meaning this idea gives users unrestricted access to hardware lying within.

Both types of servers are single-tenant machines, providing configurations of processors, storage, and memory that are not shared between users. This means that whether users are using a bare metal server or a dedicated one, they can rely on the power of their own hardware and do not need to worry about performance taking a hit when there is a spike in traffic.

While bare metal and traditional servers both offer dedicated solutions, bare metal machines tend to be a hosting service provider’s flagship product.  Bare metal configurations are typically equipped with the latest & greatest hardware, from the newest generation of Intel Xeon CPUs to DDR4 RAM with error-correcting code (ECC).

Storage technology on bare metal servers is also most likely to be top-notch, with solid-state drives (SSDs) now providing even faster loading that is far ahead of standard SATA SSDs and hard disks. Connectivity is an additional yet vital feature of a server’s performance.

Both old and new style bare metal and dedicated servers can be rented with a high speed 1 GB per second connection which ensures all dedicated hardware can be put to good use. On the basis of their hardware, they both offer the same level of control, sophistication, and security.

Time is an important factor

One of the major differences between these two is the pricing and the contract terms. A bare metal server helps businesses get all the performance a standard server has to offer but with flexible billing on a per-hour model.

While traditional servers are often rented on monthly or yearly contracts, businesses can use a bare metal one on demand depending on whether they want it for the short or long run, as needed, and only pay for what they use. This is ideal for websites and apps experiencing higher traffic at peak times like sales or seasonal events.

The two breeds of servers hence exist to serve different usage requirements. Classic dedicated servers provide hosting resources to be used consistently for months or years at a time. Bare metal servers can be launched and closed on short notice, even if dedicated performance is only needed for a short time.