The Bare Facts: What Businesses Have to Gain with Dedicated Servers

By Andreea Jakab, Bigstep

The need for high performance servers is greater than ever before and many companies are making the switch to dedicated servers, as they are beginning to learn that public cloud services are not as powerful as bare metal. Let’s look at the benefits of dedicated servers and how mid-sized companies can take advantage of them.

Need for High Performance Servers

We are experiencing a new tech-based society, where almost every business needs a high-performance server. According to an Accenture study, nearly 80% of enterprise executives believe not embracing big data will make their companies less competitive and even raise the possibility of extinction.

This belief is rooted in the fact that every business must have quick, safe, and secure access to their data, not to mention maintain a functioning website. There are plenty of public cloud service providers out there. Many offer services that see to company data needs, but the truth is that virtual machines have more downsides than advantages.

Downsides of Virtual Machines

Virtual machines access hardware indirectly, which makes them far less efficient than real machines. Virtual machines also run software on top of the host operating system, which slows usability because it must request access to the hardware from the host.

Performance is also hindered when several virtual machines run on the same host because they still use the resources of the host machine. The more powerful the host computer, the faster the virtual machine can operate. A virtual machine can also be infected by the host machine and
potentially infect every machine in the environment.

Complete Control and Exclusive Use

A dedicated server is a physically isolated tool that provides businesses with complete control and exclusive use. As a single-tenant environment, you have root access to the server and exclusive use of all the CPU, RAM, and bandwidth, which means at peak business times you’ll continue to receive peak performance.

Flexibility and Scalability

If you are anticipating growth, then you need a dedicated server. With a dedicated server you’ll be able to customize your server arrays to fit your needs, including CPU, RAM, disk space, and software. Dedicated servers are also more scalable than public clouds - simply add more processing, storage, and backup as needed.

Built for Speed

Dedicated servers provide increased performance. No extra layers of processing between the operating system and requests for data means no built-in latency. Additionally, data streams within the dedicated environment are genuinely isolated, which means greater stability
and reliability during peak traffic times.

Unique IP Address

A dedicated server also comes with a dedicated IP address which is beneficial for a variety of reasons: a boost in performance and security, direct server access, a higher level of server control, and increased email capabilities. Companies doing credit card processing (such as e-commerce) will find this especially important.

Security

One of the greatest benefits of a direct server is its enhanced security, especially for companies that perform transactions over FTP or SSL. The litany of cloud hacking cases show that public cloud service providers are not as secure as they claim.

No matter the size of your business, you certainly can’t afford to have your company's sensitive data fall prey to hackers and data thieves. Dedicated servers like bare metal cloud solutions occupy the entire operating system, which makes it faster, safer, and at a lower likelihood of hacking and interference.

Cost Predictability

Though bare metal is generally more expensive than shared hosting, the predictability of a fixed price and the scalability of bare metal cloud is the right choice for any business. It’s good to know what you’re paying for and why you’re being charged. With a dedicated server, you simply pay for the services you use, unlike most public cloud providers who charge a nominal fee every time you attempt to access your data. These fees may be miniscule, but cloud providers charge them in hopes that high volume will
balance out the low cost.

Bare metal servers provide the processing infrastructure for the metal cloud's computational services. They offer unrivaled performance and complete out-of-band management. In fact, in a single-tenancy environment, bare metal servers outperform traditional on-premises solutions and public virtualized clouds in nearly every category.

About the Author:

Andreea Jakab serves as a Community Growth Manager for Bigstep (https://bigstep.com/).