What is Bare Metal Server?

When you get ready to set up a server, one of the first questions you’re going to run into is whether you should run bare metal servers or virtual servers. You may have heard of virtual servers being somehow related to the cloud before, but what are bare metal servers? Bare metal servers can be a good option for companies that need rock-solid security and are prepared to handle server maintenance.

What is a Bare Metal Server?

A bare metal server is a computer server that gets assigned for use to a single client. Essentially, bare metal solutions allow customers to lease hardware from providers to use as they see fit. This differs greatly from virtual servers, which can potentially run multiple different software applications on the same piece of hardware. A bare metal server can run any amount of work needed by a client and have multiple users within an organization, but the hardware remains dedicated entirely to the organization that is renting it.

How does it work?

Bare metal servers work by providing your organization with computing and storage needs directly on a physical server that’s dedicated to you. This means that you have full access to all the server’s resources, which enables your team to optimize your server infrastructure for your organization’s unique needs.

A few key benefits of bare metal servers include the following:

• Isolation: On a bare metal server, your organization’s sensitive data is securely isolated on a physical server that’s dedicated to you.
• Performance: Because bare metal servers provide you with 100% of their resources, you can count on reliable performance without experiencing the latency that can occur in shared virtual server environments.
• Control: With bare metal servers, you gain root access to the server, giving you the control to optimize it to your needs and maximize performance, security, and reliability.
• Predictable Costs: While virtual shared servers are generally more cost-effective, they can also be potentially volatile – especially when it comes to a lack of security and latency. With a bare metal server, you get the advantage of more predictable costs.

Why choose a Bare Metal Server?

Bare metal dedicated servers are great for small to medium businesses looking for a cost-effective hosting solution that can quickly automate and scale their resource allocation.

Many experts say that bare metal servers are in decline compared to other hosting options. However, this server type remains an extremely popular option, especially in many industries. The unique characteristics of the platform allow for an elite level of performance, power, and security.

Industries that traditionally rely on dedicated hosting solutions and colocation are the banking and financial services industry, health care, and government. Additionally, bare metal is perfect for critical high-intensity workloads, such as business intelligence or database apps. Render farms and media encoding operations are examples of projects that use this option rather than virtualized servers because of the heightened performance levels.

Innovative software development companies use bare metal dedicated servers as an affordable way to test and launch products.

Industries with the highest needs for data security, world-class performance, and precise data operations are most likely to use bare metal systems. As the demand for storage grows alongside big data, this market will continue to grow with it. Large enterprises within these sectors are expected to drive the majority of users. The largest driver of growth over the entire market is expected to be advertising and emerging technological advancements.

Advantages and Disadvantages

One of the biggest advantages a bare metal server offers is greater security. It’s going to be much harder for a hacker to get into your server if the connections are all physically located on-site. You can also guarantee greater performance if you have personal control of your server.

While running a bare metal server can be more private, it does offer a risk to your information security. If your location gets struck by lightning and your servers get fried, your information may be lost. You also have to take on the responsibility of maintaining and updating the physical servers when you’re running a bare metal server.

Are Bare Metal Servers a Good Fit?

Bare metal servers continue to be an essential component of many companies’ IT infrastructures. There are many advantages to using this environment.

Bare metal offers the best that current technology has to offer. When hosting bare metal with an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider, you can quickly scale globally by leveraging the provider’s expertise across all professional dimensions of managing such infrastructure. This means that you get an affordable way to cluster your resources, globally.

Other perks of bare metal include the ability to hybridize your infrastructure by unifying your bare metal and virtual assets. Growing businesses should consider bare metal as a long-term solution for data storage and transfer. There is no better solution when it comes to pure power, the flexibility of structure, and customization capabilities.