Bare-Metal Vs. Virtual Machines: The Right One For Your Business

Virtual machines are like little computers that can run inside your workstation. This allows you to test software, operating systems, and other aspects of a computer before you purchase the hardware. On the other hand, bare-metal servers have also been heralded as more secure than their virtual counterparts since multiple security exploits target vulnerabilities in hypervisors.

Whereas with a bare-metal server, this is not an issue because there is no hypervisor involved at all—a container just runs on top of the hardware without any sort of “virtualization. If you are having difficulty choosing between Virtual machines and bare metal servers, you need to start with some basics and their advantages.

1. Bare Metal Server

A bare-metal server is simply a server that runs on a physical computer instead of running on a hosted system (like a virtual machine does). One of the best things about this is that once you have decided to go with bare-metal servers, you have complete control over every server-aspect, such as operating systems and hardware. The only thing that a bare-metal server provides is direct access to the system.

Advantages of Bare-Metal Servers

• The general term for using bare-metal servers for your business applications is “server virtualization.” This means creating one or more virtual machines and connecting them to your application with either high-speed connections or low bandwidth links.
• Mixed bare-metal and virtual servers allow you to use the best of both worlds. This means that you can use bare-metal servers in a secure data center while simultaneously having some of your applications run on virtual machines.
• If security is an issue, then the bare-metal server is a good choice because it won’t be loaded with any virtualization software that could be compromised. In addition, since there is no hypervisor software involved, it considerably reduces the attack surface area.

2. Virtual Machines

Virtual Machines are basically like a computer inside your computer. These are small computers that run on top of a host operating system (like Microsoft Windows or Linux). These so-called “guest” machines can be created and destroyed as needed. You can run any operating system on top of a virtual machine, which makes them very useful for portability and testing. Virtualization is just as secure as bare metal servers because they run on the same physical hardware, but there is one big difference.

Advantages of Virtual Servers

• If you are looking for a solution that can reduce your IT program costs, you must consider virtual servers. They are cheaper than bare-metal servers, and some free virtualization software solutions are available.
• You can choose between commercial and open-source virtualization software solutions. Commercial options would be more expensive but provide better performance and scalability. Open-source options would be free and provide good functionality without the risk of viruses and security issues.

Final Verdict

Organizations that want to use servers as a service (SaaS) must consider using bare-metal servers and virtual machines. The bare-metal server provides high performance with low latency, while virtual machines can be used for scalability applications. The choice of technologies would depend on the nature of your project requirements.