Optimizing Workload Placement

Bare Metal Cloud vs. Dedicated Servers

Choose the right server for your workloads.

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API-Driven Dedicated Servers

Comparing Bare Metal Cloud and Dedicated
Servers

Traditional dedicated servers and modern bare metal servers share many of the same characteristics. While both server types deliver non-virtualized single-tenant physical machines, they differ in terms of provisioning, billing, and customization options. The table below compares phoenixNAP’s Bare Metal Cloud platform with traditional dedicated servers.

Feature
Bare Metal Cloud
Dedicated Servers

Server provisioning

Fully automated

Partial orchestration

Provisioning time

< 2 minutes

Hours or days

Pre-installed virtualization

Non-virtualized

Non-virtualized

Hardware customization

Pre-configured instances

Configured based on customer’s requirements

Single-tenant environment

Yes

Yes

Dedicated resources

Yes

Yes

Hourly billing

Yes

No

API and CLI functionality

Yes

No

Continuous Delivery alignment

Yes

No

Support for IaC tools

Yes

No
Feature

  • Bare Metal Cloud

    Fully automated

  • Dedicated Servers

    Partial orchestration

  • Bare Metal Cloud

    < 2 minutes

  • Dedicated Servers

    Hours or days

  • Bare Metal Cloud

    Non-virtualized

  • Dedicated Servers

    Non-virtualized

  • Bare Metal Cloud

    Pre-configured instances

  • Dedicated Servers

    Configured based on customer’s requirements

  • Bare Metal Cloud

    Yes

  • Dedicated Servers

    Yes

  • Bare Metal Cloud

    Yes

  • Dedicated Servers

    Yes

  • Bare Metal Cloud

    Yes

  • Dedicated Servers

    No

  • Bare Metal Cloud

    Yes

  • Dedicated Servers

    No

  • Bare Metal Cloud

    Yes

  • Dedicated Servers

    No

  • Bare Metal Cloud

    Yes

  • Dedicated Servers

    No

Features

Differences Between Bare Metal Cloud and Dedicated Servers Explained

Server Provisioning

While dedicated servers support particle orchestration, provisioning and deployment is manual. Data center technicians configure and customize dedicated servers according to the customer’s hardware specifications.

Bare Metal Cloud servers are grouped into pre-configured server instance types that users can provision and deploy automatically.

Provisioning Time

Depending on the complexity of the deployment, it takes anywhere from hours and days to weeks or even months to provision dedicated servers.

Thanks to automation, provisioning one or more Bare Metal Cloud instances takes less than 120 seconds while the process of decommissioning is instantaneous.

Pre-Installed Virtualization Layer

Bare Metal Cloud and dedicated servers do not come with pre-installed hypervisors or other virtualization layers. This allows users to utilize the full performance potential of physical CPU, RAM, and storage resources.

Users enjoy more freedom to add a hypervisor or container engine and optimize and customize their environments.

Hardware Customization

Bare Metal Cloud servers offer limited customization options in terms of hardware, but users can choose between 50 different pre-configured instance types.

Dedicated servers are highly customizable and can be provisioned with specific hardware components based on the customer’s specific requirements.

Single-Tenant Environment

Both server types are single-tenant environments, meaning they support only one customer. As a result, the so-called “noisy neighbor” effect is eliminated, giving the user more control over performance and security.

Dedicated Resources

There is no resource sharing among multiple users on the same machine in Bare Metal Cloud or dedicated server environments. All of the server’s physical compute, memory, and storage resources are dedicated exclusively to one customer.

Billing Models

Unlike dedicated servers, Bare Metal Cloud can be billed hourly on a pay-per-use basis. You can deploy a server instance for a couple of hours or days and only pay for the resources consumed. Nevertheless, monthly or long-term reservation options are still there to help you optimize your IT costs.

Continuous Delivery Alignment

As an automation-ready platform, Bare Metal Cloud is tailor-fit for powering build and testing servers in CI/CD pipelines. It allows you to leverage custom-built API and CLI utilities, as well as various Infrastructure as Code engines to manage resources programmatically, which dedicated servers do not support.

We Value Your
Trust

We pride ourselves on being the preferred choice for our clients.

We Value
Your Trust

We pride ourselves on being the preferred choice for our clients.

IaaS Offering

phoenixNAP Bare Metal Cloud and Dedicated Servers Solutions

In addition to Bare Metal Cloud, phoenixNAP also offers a wide variety of traditional dedicated server solutions. Each server option is custom-tailored to address the specific needs and requirements of modern businesses operating in different verticals.

Bare Metal Cloud

BMC is a perfect fit for teams looking to run their CI/CD pipelines on a fully automated physical server infrastructure. With API-driven provisioning and compatibility with IaC tools, BMC is equipped with all the tools DevOps teams need to deliver quality software to market faster and easier.

Learn More »

Dedicated Servers

phoenixNAP’s dedicated servers are tailored to meet the demands of hosting providers, resellers, and businesses looking to leverage high-performance single-tenant servers on an opex model. These solutions are ideal for running virtualization, databases, HPC, and streaming and gaming workloads.

Learn More »

Data Center as a Service

Organizations who have outgrown their on-prem data center or are migrating to the cloud can opt for phoenixNAP’s colocation, hardware leasing, secure cloud, or data availability services. Enjoy hybrid-cloud-ready data center resources, customizable hardware options, worldwide scalability, and budget-friendly pricing.

Learn More »

Get Started

Discover the Power of Bare Metal Cloud

Chat with Us on Slack

Become part of the Bare Metal Cloud community on Slack to chat with developers and other users, ask questions, and request new features.

Join Now »

Check Us Out on GitHub

Download IaC modules, use GitHub Actions to deploy servers, stay up to date with new releases, and contribute to our open-source projects.

Access Repos »

Create an Account

Sign up for Bare Metal Cloud for free and take a sneak peek at the platform’s WebUI. browse all available server instances and features with no strings attached.

Sign Up »

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Traditionally, a bare metal server stands for a physical machine you have direct access to. On the other hand, a cloud server is a virtualized environment using compute, storage, and network resources usually shared between different tenants on the same host. Bare Metal Cloud bridges the gap between the two infrastructure models and offers access to the physical hardware with cloud-like provisioning and management capabilities.

For organizations that require persistently high-performance, monthly-billed dedicated servers can be a more financially viable fit. On the other hand, businesses with predictable traffic spikes and compute demands can benefit from optimizing IT spend using hourly billing options typically associated with cloud computing. Bare Metal Cloud provides pay-as-you-go options or lets you unlock significant savings through 1, 12, 24, or 36-month reservations. This allows you to adapt your IT costs according to your specific needs.

Bare Metal Cloud offers on-demand access to over 50 server instances deployable in a matter of minutes via API, CLI, or WebUI. As such, it can streamline anything from the creation of sandbox environments to the deployment of production-grade Kubernetes clusters. Also, you can choose pre-configured instances designed for web applications, high-transaction databases, data-intensive analytics, or AI/ML workloads.

You can deploy our Bare Metal Cloud servers in a matter of minutes in Phoenix, AZ, Ashburn, VA, Chicago, IL, Seattle, WA, and Austin, TX (edge location), in the U.S., or Amsterdam, NL, in the EU, and Singapore, SGP, in APAC.

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