Contending with rising costs, complex platform management and limited hardware control, many businesses are seriously reconsidering hyperscale cloud-first strategies.
Realizing that the associated costs and complexities are unnecessary and avoidable, it’s led to a surge in hyperscale cloud repatriation and a return to alternative infrastructure solutions.
Solutions like on-premises deployments, colocation and bare metal cloud are seeing a resurgence. The latter in particular has become a compelling option for organizations seeking infrastructure as a service (IaaS) convenience with added hardware customization, resource isolation, reliable and optimized performance, and support.
It’s in this category that servers.com’s Enterprise Bare Metal (EBM) solution sits.
Enterprise Bare Metal (EBM) is a high-performance bare metal cloud solution from servers.com. Unlike traditional bare metal which has a reputation for inflexibility, EBM offers a unique combination of customizable, enterprise-grade hardware and IaaS convenience. With deep control over hardware and networking, EBM users can create highly optimized infrastructures ideal for workloads ranging from lightweight applications to compute intensive tasks.
EBM is a bare metal cloud hosting solution that works under an IaaS model. This means EBM customers rent out entire physical servers and maintain sole tenancy and control over those servers for the duration of their use.
With EBM you can build a custom setup in consultation with our specialists to create bespoke dedicated server deployments. This results in fully optimized infrastructure architectures developed around the specific business and performance criteria of each individual EBM user. These deployments can then be scaled incrementally, as needed, in line with predictable increases in demand or planned scaling events.
Two customization tiers are available based on contract length:
| Month-to-month | Long term agreement (LTA) |
|---|---|
| Customize RAM, storage and network | Full server customization |
For organizations with predictable resource requirements, EBM can be used as a standalone infrastructure solution. However, if you also need to scale on-demand, we recommend topping up your EBM compute with Scalable Bare Metal (SBM).
SBM is our on-demand bare metal solution. Provisioned in minutes and billed by the hour, it acts as a scalability safety net that you can burst into whenever you experience unexpected or temporary demand spikes.
EBM and SBM are interoperable and have been designed to work together to form our overarching hybrid bare metal cloud solution. This makes it easy for businesses to maintain an efficient baseline and scale on-demand on the same network.
For organizations that want the reliability and control of bare metal but also need agile scalability, it’s a great alternative to traditional hybrid architectures combining bare metal compute with virtual machines (VMs) from hyperscale cloud providers.
Hybrid bare metal cloud enables businesses to bypass the rising costs and operational overheads faced in hyperscale cloud environments. At the same time, it eliminates the operational overhead of managing infrastructure across multiple providers.
EBM and hyperscale cloud services both fall under the category of infrastructure as a service (IaaS), but beyond this there are some important differences to consider.
EBM is unmanaged dedicated server hosting. Businesses using EBM rent out entire physical servers which they retain sole tenancy and root access over for the duration of use. This is different from public cloud infrastructure from hyperscale cloud vendors, where server resources are virtualized on a hypervisor and shared between multiple tenants. It’s more akin to private cloud services where the computing environment is dedicated to a single organization.
EBM servers are highly customizable because they are single tenanted machines offered over short-to-long-term contracts. It means hardware specifications including RAM and storage can be tailored to your requirements. By contrast, hyperscale cloud services deliver off-the-shelf solutions that prioritize instant provisioning and unlimited scalability over customization and optimization.
It is possible to achieve great performance using both EBM and hyperscale cloud but there are some factors to consider. By nature, single tenanted machines offer more reliable performance because there is no competition over server resources. Resource contention can be a problem in shared compute environments. When multiple tenants are vying for finite resources, demand can exceed supply leading to performance degradation.
In hyperscale cloud environments, virtual machines (VMs) can be spun up near-instantly to offer dynamic scaling based on a business’ real-time demand fluctuations. By contrast, scaling in EBM involves spinning up entire physical servers which, whilst still very quick, is not instantaneous. This means that when EBM is used as a standalone product, it’s better suited to periodic or incremental scaling requirements typical of predictable workloads, or where scaling events can be planned for in advance. Then, if dynamic scaling is needed, EBM can be paired with SBM on the same network.
EBM and hyperscale cloud operate under different pricing models. EBM is offered on short-to-long term contracts, so there’s no on-demand premium. It’s also customizable, so users can increase performance efficiencies and, by extension, reduce overall costs.
Hyperscale cloud services are built on a ‘pay for convenience’ model and demand a heavy premium for it. Complex billing structures are a common issue – and one of several reasons why more companies are leaving hyperscale cloud behind in favor of bare metal cloud or hybrid infrastructure solutions.
| EBM | SBM | EBM + SBM | Hyperscale cloud (public) | Hyperscale cloud (private) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tenancy | Sole tenancy | Sole tenancy | Sole tenancy | Shared tenancy | Sole tenancy |
| Customization | High | Low | Medium | Low | Medium |
| Performance | High | High | High | Varied | High |
| Scalability | Moderate | High | High | High | High |
| Cost | Competitive | Competitive | Competitive | Expensive | Expensive |
Whether you’re already a bare-metal-first organization or considering repatriation from hyperscale cloud, there are several reasons why you might want to consider a bare metal hosting solution like EBM.
As EBM servers are single tenanted, users get full administrative control over their machines and storage configurations. This means you can fine-tune your storage setup, choose custom formatting options and work directly with controllers and backplanes.
“Dedicated server solutions offer more customizable options when it comes to hardware and software configurations. This means MGID can optimize the server environment to our exact needs without being constrained by the limitations of standardized cloud offerings.”
Physical isolation combined with customization also brings security benefits. With no other users to compromise your hardware, the risk of security breaches spreading across applications hosted on shared hardware is eliminated.
Physical isolation also provides businesses with greater control over the security policies they implement on their servers. For security sensitive industries like trading, this can help meet the expectations of users and financial regulators, and prevent reputation-damaging incidents.
With no virtualization process or sharing of resources, EBM is not vulnerable to resource contention (or ‘noisy neighbors’). As a result, server performance is highly stable and the risk of network performance issues low. This makes EBM ideal for intensive workloads, offering high levels of server uptime, low latency and fast application loading speeds.
Lack of support when things go wrong is one of the biggest challenges businesses face with their infrastructure. Support is an integral part of EBM. Dedicated account managers and responsive engineers are always on hand to help you succeed, and when hardware challenges arise, you can expect to receive far more than standard break-fix support.
As businesses increasingly prioritize control, performance and cost-efficiency from their infrastructure, the limitations of hyperscale cloud offerings are becoming impossible to ignore.
Bare metal cloud solutions like EBM provide a compelling alternative, offering the power of dedicated hardware, the flexibility of an IaaS solution and dependable human support.
Whether used as a standalone solution or as part of a hybrid mix, EBM delivers the customization, performance and stability today’s businesses need to stay competitive. And, just as importantly, an effective exit route away from the stifling complexities and soaring cost overheads that go hand in hand with hyperscale cloud solutions.
All our EBM servers use trusted brands including Dell and Supermicro and use enterprise-grade components. Most of our EBM server fleet is comprised of Dell PowerEdge servers.
EBM is a highly custom solution and, as such, is priced on demand. To get a quote for your preferred setup you can get in touch.
EBM comes with 24/7/365 support. Every EBM customer is supported by a dedicated account management and solutions architect team for their entire relationship with servers.com, with the option to communicate via your preferred platform.
High-performance bare metal servers offer enterprises dedicated resources, high processing power and enhanced security. Offering consistent performance without virtualization overhead, dedicated servers are ideal for data-intensive applications, large databases and compliance-sensitive workloads.
Hosting specialists provide tailored infrastructure, expert guidance and proactive support to meet individual business needs. They can help you to optimize the performance, security and scalability of your infrastructure while reducing the risk of downtime and limiting bill complexity.
Yes. Dedicated servers offer high performance thanks to the use of enterprise-grade hardware, exclusive resource allocation and optimized network connectivity. Dedicated servers can also be highly scalable, but it depends on the type of service you opt for. Customizable services like EBM can be scaled in line with planned demand spikes but are not suitable for burst scaling. For this you’ll need a service like SBM which offers highly scalable dedicated server provisioning with pre-configured flavors.
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