Dedicated Server, Bare Metal, Cloud. Pros of Choosing The Right Hosting for Your Project

Choosing the right hosting for your project is as important as it is challenging. To be more specific, the right type of server base for hosting determines the experience you are going to have to manage your project.

The challenging part is to navigate through different providers and their offerings and find the one that will work for you.

If you are new to hosting, it might be helpful to get acquainted with the hosting plans of one vendor to get an idea of the options you have; we recommend checking www.hostzealot.com since it has an optimal selection of different hosting solutions.

In this article, we will focus on dedicated servers, bare metal, and cloud hosting, and will try to help you figure out which one is right for your project.

Are dedicated and bare metal servers the same thing?

The terms “dedicated server” and “bare metal server” are often used interchangeably, so it might be hard to distinguish a real difference between these two.

There are a multitude of articles suggesting that the difference is small, yet existing. However, if we take a closer look into the details, the bare metal server is just a “high-end” dedicated server.

As IBM puts it, “The concept of bare metal servers rose as a response to the sometimes negative associations with dedicated servers”. In this context, the bare metal server is a better version of a dedicated server, designed to address the limitations of the latter’s basic configuration.

Bare metal servers sometimes come with cloud infrastructure, which is another aspect that sets them apart from traditional dedicated servers.

Dedicated servers are considered the top-of-the-line in hosting, but bare metal servers are probably the best hosting solution you can get in terms of the quality of hardware, power, and performance.

To answer the question, no, dedicated and bare metal servers are not the same thing, although they share the same concept behind their design.

Dedicated Server Hosting

A dedicated server is considered to be a powerful hosting solution for resource-demanding applications and websites with high traffic volumes.

As the name implies, it offers its user dedicated resources, meaning that one renting a dedicated server is the only one using it — dedicated hosting is the only hosting model that offers exclusivity of resources.

A dedicated server comes with greater freedom, control over the hardware and software configuration, strong security, and unmatched performance. This type of hosting does not limit you in terms of usage: you can use a dedicated server for web hosting, application hosting, game hosting, storage, and a bunch of other things.

Hosting with a dedicated server has multiple advantages you won’t find with shared hosting or VPS.

Pros

• Complete server control. With a dedicated server, you get to control the hardware and software configuration, which means you can upgrade the components of a physical server and its application base.
• Vast customization options. Hosting with a dedicated server allows you to choose which OS, control panel, management, monitoring, and other tools you want to use.
• Reliability. The concept of a dedicated server eliminates the aspect of sharing it with other users — you get the full physical server to yourself. Because nobody else is using the server, there’s no chance of disrupted functioning due to other people’s activity. In the context of reliability, you also get a better uptime guarantee compared to shared and virtual hosting.
• Compliance. Some industries like finance require a hosting solution to be compliant with regulations such as PCI DSS for e-commerce websites; dedicated server hosting may help you stay compliant with similar regulations.
• Robust security. Security of a dedicated server is also related to the exclusive use of machine resources, however, it doesn’t end there. This server will help you create a secure environment by offering the possibilities of setting up physical firewalls, installing malware programs, encryption, restricting access, creating backups, etc.

Dedicated server hosting also comes with a unique IP address, which is paramount for high SEO ranking.

Bare Metal Server Hosting

As we have already established, bare metal servers are based on a dedicated server technology but offer more in terms of hardware specs, operation, reliability, and performance.

Bare metal servers can also come with built-in support of cloud technology, and in their entirety, they are still physical servers with resources dedicated to just one user. This type of server, however, comes with top-notch hardware components, which are more advanced if compared to a dedicated server.

The hardware used in bare metal servers is designed for easier provisioning and integration into a cloud environment. The cloud infrastructure related to bare metal servers implies an environment suitable for API-focused operations, and advanced automation tools.

Just like dedicated servers, bare metal servers are a great option for resource-demanding applications, websites with high traffic, and large databases; however, they are easier to set up, and usually come with more flexible pricing models such as “per-hour” or “pay-as-you-go”.

Pros

• Possibility of cloud integration. Bare metal servers allow deploying a cloud infrastructure on a physical server without the need for a virtualization layer. This approach allows applications to leverage the full power of the hardware, thus ensuring better performance.
• High scalability. Bare metal servers are considered to be highly scalable, with pre-configured or on-demand resource allocation. In contrast, dedicated servers have limited scalability, and require manual, hardware upgrades for performance adaptation.
• Fast provisioning. The maximum time of a bare metal server provisioning is a couple of hours, while provisioning of a dedicated server can take up to a couple of days.
• Flexible pricing. Bare metal hosting usually has a flexible pricing model like “per-hour” or “pay-as-you-go”, unlike dedicated server hosting, which has a fixed, and usually, high price.
• Low latency. Unlike virtual hosting, bare metal hosting is associated with minimal latency thanks to the direct connection to hardware resources without a virtualization layer.

Bare metal hosting will be beneficial for any business or project since it is considered extremely powerful while being relatively affordable.

Cloud Hosting

With conventional hosting models, including dedicated servers, your website or application is located on one server, meaning that all the data is stored on one machine. In such a setup, sharing the data or collaboration might get tricky.

Cloud hosting uses a network of servers for managing and distributing resources. Due to such a structure, one of the biggest benefits of cloud hosting is scalability and reliability. Cloud hosting is probably the most scalable hosting solution out there since you can easily go up and down in your resource capacity.

Plus, cloud hosting providers offer a flexible payment model similar to the “pay-as-you-go” approach. The reliability of cloud hosting is evident, since if the currently utilized server malfunctions or cannot handle the load, the system can quickly transfer requests to another server, ensuring minimal downtime.

Pros

• The most accessible scalability. Adding or reducing resources is incredibly easy with cloud hosting, and usually can be done in a matter of minutes.
• A flexible payment model. Unlike a dedicated server, where you should pay a significant sum of money straight away, with cloud hosting, you only pay for what you use in a billing period that is most convenient to you.
• Easy recovery. Cloud hosting offers users vast backup options and easy data recovery. Instead of relying on one server to store and uninterruptedly process data, cloud hosting distributes it throughout the network of servers. This way, if something happens to a website or an application, with cloud hosting you can be confident you will restore it.
• High uptime and reliability. In all other hosting solutions, uptime largely depends on the physical server and its functioning. In cloud hosting, downtime is practically a foreign concept, since a user always has multiple other servers to rely on. Cloud hosting is also very reliable because it eliminates the influence of potential hardware failure.
• Minimal latency. Latency, which affects the server performance, is a big issue users face even when they choose a powerful server. With cloud hosting, latency is reduced, since the system picks up the server closest to the end-user, this way minimizing the physical distance between them.

Cloud hosting has many benefits, and use cases. However, it is associated with potential security issues.

Choosing the Right Hosting for Your Project

Now that we know more about dedicated, bare metal, and cloud hosting, let’s look at the factors to take into account when choosing between them.

1. Your budget. It all starts there. Dedicated hosting is the most expensive of the three, however, it is powerful. If you don’t have the budget for it, consider what you need more: flexibility and versatility that comes with cloud hosting or stability and customization associated with bare metal hosting. Overall, consider the billing model that is suitable for you. If you aren’t ready to pay a significant sum of money starting up, look into bare metal and cloud hosting.
2. Server uptime. Server uptime is crucial for a good hosting experience, however, you need to evaluate what potential uptime will be suitable for you. Bare metal and cloud hosting show the best uptime metrics.
3. Demands. How demanding or traffic-dense are your applications or websites? The answer to this question will help you figure out the resource capacity you need. Bare metal and dedicated servers offer more resources.
4. Management. Are you planning to manage a server on your own or do you want a hosting provider to take care of it? Dedicated hosting comes with complete control over the server, however, if you don’t have the technical knowledge necessary to manage it, investing in dedicated hosting might not be a good idea. Cloud hosting will likely have more management options.

Ultimately, if you don’t know what type of hosting to choose, we don’t recommend investing in dedicated hosting without the continuous payment option. Something more scalable like cloud hosting will likely be a better option for you.

Dedicated, bare metal and cloud hosting are all great options that will probably work well supporting your project. However, it is best to decide between them once you tried at least one.