Security advantages of Bare Metal Servers

1. What is a Bare Metal Server?

Bare metal servers are a form of cloud services in which the user rents a physical machine from a provider that is not shared with any other tenants....

2. Advantages of Bare Metal Servers

Raw Performance: It provides direct access to the physical hardware, which results in a huge boost in performance as there is no overhead from the Virtualization process. This advantage makes it a first choice for intensive computing environments. Predictable Resource Allocation: As bare metal servers have their dedicated resources allocated to them, systems that require stable and reliable processing power and resources, bare metal servers become their first choice. Customization and Control: In the case of Bare Metal Servers, users have full control over their configuration. They can make changes according to their needs without any issues. This independent nature is beneficial when the system requires some unique kind of resources and configuration to work properly. Security: Bare Metal servers provide a high degree of security as it doesn’t share it resources with others like Virtualization. So all the hardware and resources stays in the same place and used by people of particular organization. This reduces the risk of security breaches or any vulnerabilities which can be seen in shared infrastructures. Licensing Cost Optimization: Bare Metal servers can be more cost-effective than that of Virtualized systems. As the organizations will only pay for the resources they want to install, without renting or thinking about other tenants....

3. Disadvantages of Bare Metal Servers

Limited Scalability: As the bare metal servers use physical servers or resources, scalability is one of the main drawbacks of Bare Metal Servers. Unlike cloud based servers or virtualized servers, bare metal server can’t scale instantly or in less cost. Physical resources must be brought and installed to scale it. Higher Upfront Costs: Installation of the bare metal server from scratch can be costlier than that of virtualized resources, as in that there is no need to by any physical equipments. Also it is costlier to mantain the physical resources and keep them running all the time. Resource Underutilization: As bare metal servers are specifically allocated for single user or application. Sometimes, the resources of that server remains underutilized, because of the different workload at different time. Longer Deployment Times: Provisioning and allocating the resources and then deploying them takes a lot more time as compared to virtual machines. This can be a drawback when rapid scalability is needed or quick deployment is required for certain applications. Complex Managemen: Managing bare metal servers is alos a hectic task, as it require hardware maintenance, updates, troubleshooting etc. This complexity can increase the time and skill requirements of the system administrators, which can eventually impact the efficiency of operation....

4. Use Cases of Bare Metal Servers

High Performance Computing (HPC): Bare Metal servers promotes high performance computing scenarios, such as scientific simulations, data analysis, financial modeling etc. The direct access to the hardware resources unlocks the maximum computational power without any overhead caused by Virtualization. Content Delivery Networks (CDN): Bare Metal Servers are used in CDN environments due to their dedicated hardware which ensures consistent performance in case of distributing and caching contents across various different locations. Machine Learning and AI Workloads: Applications which involves tasks related to Machine Learning and AI needs heavy and stable processing power all the times. Due to the raw processing power and efficient resource allocation Bare Metal server provides, it is the first choice for them. Tasks like training and deploying complex models can be accelerated when a dedicated hardware has been used. Resource-Intensive Web Applications: Web Applications which deal with a lot of traffic can utilise the dedicated hardware or resources bare metal server provides. One of that type of Web Application can be an E-commerce website, which deals with a lot of traffic every day. Security-Sensitive Applications: Bare Metal servers are preffered when the security of the application is taken into consideration. As there is only one user using those physical resources, the chances of any vulnerability arising is much more less as compared to the virtualized or cloud based servers. It is preffered by people who work in the field of Financial Services or Health Services. Network Infrastructure and Virtual Network Functions (VNFs): Bare Metal server provide the necessary performance and isolation for network related tasks such as routing, load balancing, use of firewall etc....

5. Operating System Options for Bare Metal Servers

Bare Metal servers allow the users to choose any of the renowned operating systems they want to work with. The choice of the OS relies on some factors like performance, compatibility and most importantly how well versed is the system administrator with that OS. Below are some of the most common OS options for Bare Metal Servers –...

6. The Process of Procuring and Deploying a Bare Metal Server

The process of procuring and deploying a bare metal server consists of various important steps. They are given below:...

7. Security advantages of Bare Metal Servers

Isolated from other servers: Bare metal servers are mostly used by a certain individual or a certain organization. There is no concept of using shared resources which is used by multiple user of different organizations. This isolation feature of bare metal servers is useful for security purposes, as only a certain individual or individuals of a certain organization can access the server. Enhanced Control Over Security Measures: The users have the full control over the bare metal servers, and the security measures used in them. Users can manipulate those security measures and customize the firewall if necessary according to their need and the need of the application. Reduced Attack Surface: As compared to the Virtualized servers, Bare Metal servers have a less amount of attack surface associated with them, attack surface means the number of ways the hacker can gain access to the applications running on the server. Physical Security: As bare metal servers are physically isolated from other servers, unlike the virtualized servers, it is much more secure as only certain authorized individuals or organizations can only access and manipulate that server. No other tenant or individual can get access to it as it is not being shared with anyone else. Secure Boot and Hardware-Level Security Features: Most of the times, Bare Metal servers are equipped with some hardware-level securitty features like TPM and Secure Boot Processes support. These added layer of security enhances the integrity of the server’s boot process and safeguards from any unauthrorized access....

8. Networking and Connectivity for Bare Metal Servers

Network and Connectivity is one of the key feature of the bare metal servers which differentiate it with the virtualized servers and plays a crucial role ensuring the optimization , reliability and security for the applications running over it. Below are some of the Network and connectivity feature supported by Bare Metal servers –...

9. How to manage the Bare Metal Servers

There are following ways to manage the Bare Metal Servers:...

10. Difference Between Bare Metal Servers and Virtualization

...