When hosting and deploying applications in the modern IT infra operational context, there are three main types to consider: Bare Metal, Virtual Machines (VMs), and Cloud Containers, each with its own advantages and tradeoffs depending on the specific business use case. But these technologies are not mutually exclusive. Instead of being competing alternatives, they are complementary technologies that can be integrated strategically.
Both VMs and containers run on top of bare metal servers, while containers can also be deployed inside VMs.
But How Are They Different? How Should One Choose?
Bare Metal, Virtual Machines or Containers?
Imagine wanting a house – there are three options:
| Bare Metal (Owning the House) | Like owning a house from foundation to roof – get direct access to all hardware resources, customize every aspect of the server, install any operating system, and have full control over performance, security, and configuration. |
| Virtual Machine (Renting the Whole House) | There is significant freedom without owning the infrastructure. One can install software, modify settings, and run applications, but the physical hardware is managed by the cloud provider - just like a rental where the property owner handles major structural changes. |
| Container (Renting a Room in the House) | Containers are lightweight, portable environments that share the host OS-es kernel. Considered more affordable and flexible, and ideal for microservices and application deployment. Like a room in a shared house, there is limited access and shared resources. |
Let us understand better.
Table of Contents
- Bare Metal: The Foundation of Dedicated Infrastructure
- Virtual Machines: The Chameleons of Computational Environments
- Containerization: For Modern Architectural Flexibility
- Bare Metal vs. VMs vs. Containers: Choosing the Right Server
- Explore Cloud4C's Integrated Deployment Solutions
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Bare Metal: The Foundation of Dedicated Infrastructure
It all Began with Bare Metal!
Prior to innovations around virtualization (as we understand it today) in the 1990s and the subsequent adoption of cloud post 2000, all servers were bare metal. The term “bare metal server” itself was derived from the idea that the server operates directly on the “bare metal” or physical server hardware without any intervening virtual layers.
Originally, they were the sole model of server deployment; now shared and multi-tenanted ones also come into play. Nonetheless, bare metal servers have stayed afloat because of their performance advantages and security. Bare metal essentially refers to the server hardware - a metal box containing a motherboard, processor, memory, power supply, fans, disk drives, and several other cards supporting networking connectivity ports and physical interfaces, on which software and applications would be installed.
This physical computer would be dedicated to a single tenant, who would have complete control over all the hardware - such as type of processor, amount of memory, or size of hard drive - and the corresponding software they choose to run on it.
Benefits of Bare Metal Servers
1. Exceptional Performance
Bare metal servers are quite unique in design. Unlike other operating systems, there is no presence of a hypervisor, which makes it impossible for the resource to be contested for and hence there is no overhead that would affect the performance of the application. Thus, offering the capability of running at its full potential – making bare metal particularly relevant to CPU and compute utilizations for CPU hungry applications.
2. Better Security
This is one of the great advantages of bare metal servers. Since a bare metal is likely to be allocated to a single tenant server only, all risks that may have been attributed to multi-tenancy are eliminated. With this type of isolation, bare metal servers keep the data secure since no other virtual environment shares the facilities – making bare metal servers suitable for organizations working with sensitive information, such as healthcare providers or banking institutions where data availability and protection are critical.
3. Customization and Control
Bare metal servers offer the users raw power with no added software, allowing changes as needed to be implemented on each piece of equipment. Shared hosting often offers little ways to customize the server since they are confined by the infrastructure as well as the policies of the provider. This includes selection of OS, defining additional storage and network options and even installation of specific applications.
4. Cost-Effectivity for High-Demand Workloads
The initial cost of bare metal server may be considered high, but in the moment of high load and heavy usage, it becomes effective. Further, the predictability of dedicated resources excludes the occurrence of over-subscription, helping cut costs on both the hardware as well as the operating cost.
Now, what are Virtual Machines (VMs)?
Virtual Machines: Creating Scalable Digital Environments
A Virtual Machine or VM is like an imitation of a physical computer that runs in software through the process of virtualization.
Through layers of software abstraction, multiple VMs can run on one physical computer, each with their own specific operating system (OS). Management of these VMs is performed by a software known as a hypervisor, which can run on the host operating system, or in some cases on the bare metal itself. This allows multiple OS-es to run on one physical machine. The VM OS is known as a ‘guest operating system’, whereas the bare metal machine uses the host operating system.
VMs are what one would typically expect in a cloud environment. Many cloud providers also allow customers to customize their VMs as if they were picking from a range of hardware components, such as a number of virtual processors or memory.
There are two types of virtual machines:
- Process VM: Also called an application virtual machine or managed runtime environment (MRE), creates a virtual environment of an OS while an app or single process is running and destroys it as soon as you exit.
- System VM: Also called hardware virtual machines sometimes, simulates a complete OS, allowing multiple OS environments to live on the same machine. System VMs can run their own OS and applications, and a hypervisor monitors and distributes the physical host machine’s resources between system VMs.
In recent times, a third type has also been making a name –a virtual machine in the cloud or a cloud VM. Cloud VMs are nothing but virtual machines that run on virtual servers in the cloud. Many cloud service providers allow creating and running cloud VMs on their infra, to use their powerful servers as host machines and leverage other software-defined services such as memory and network storage.
Benefits of Virtual Machines
1. Resource efficiency and cost savings
As VMs share the same hardware, more utilization can be gotten out of the physical servers. Combining different environments reduces the need to purchase hardware specific to a certain use case and instead allows shared resource usage and overall cost savings.
2. Isolation and security
Each VM runs independently from the host system, which means it is naturally isolated. This increases security by minimizing the risk of a single system crashing or breach becoming an issue. Since there are usually no communications between VMs, or they are not reliant on each other, it is easy to shut down problematic VMs or isolate security concerns quickly.
3. Flexibility and portability
Because VMs can be easily replicated, they offer great flexibility for IT infrastructures. This simplifies things when multiple environments need to be launched simultaneously - they can just share the same start-up instructions allowing for further ease in testing, backups, and disaster recovery.
Containerization: For Modern Architectural Flexibility
Containers are a form of OS virtualization that runs applications in isolated spaces called containers, using the same shared operating system. Since containers share the same OS kernel and run on top of the host’s operating system, they bypass the overhead of virtualizing hardware. This results in reduced resource consumption and faster startup times compared to traditional virtual machines.
An application container is a fully packaged and portable computing environment:
- Everything an app needs to run, including its binaries, libraries, dependencies and configuration files – all encapsulated and isolated in a container
- Isolates away from the host operating system, with limited access to underlying resources – like a lightweight virtual machine
- Can run containerized application on bare metal, in the cloud or within VMs, without refactoring it for each environment
Unlike virtualization, where the hardware is virtualized with a hypervisor, containerization virtualizes the operating system itself using a special software called the container engine. Containers form the basis for Microservices or Cloud Native applications, many DevOps practices like CI/CD pipelines and much more. Software developers commonly use containerization of applications for packaging several individual microservices making up modern apps.
Containerization as a Service: The Secret to Operational Agility?
Read More
Benefits of Containerization
1. Portability in Deploying Applications
Containerization runs on the motto “Write once, run anywhere.”
Container bundles dependencies, application can be ported just about anywhere without rebuilding it for each new environment. The isolation provided by containerization ensures that the container works the same way no matter where they are deployed. As long as the host OS supports containerization tools, such as Docker, deployment can happen with minimal hassle. Migrations from one cloud to another, such as AWS to Azure, are also possible. Containerized environments can be extended to private ecosystems and on-prem assets as well, in integration with cloud counterparts.
2. Isolation of Applications
Containerizing applications isolates it and allows it to operate independently of others. Which also means, the failure of one container does not affect the operation of the others. Dev teams can quickly identify and correct technical issues within a faulty container.
3. Resource Efficiency
Containerization is one of the most efficient methods of virtualization available to developers. Containers improve efficiency in two ways: they use all available resources, and they minimize overhead. Containers consume fewer resources compared to virtual machines, as they share the underlying operating system kernel, leading to faster startup times and lower memory and CPU usage.
4. Higher Scalability Potential
Container engines provide the fastest resource provisioning out of all three. Application container technology offers high scalability, it can handle increasing workloads by reconfiguring the existing architecture. Alternatively, a developer can add more containers within a cluster of distributed machines. Containerization also allows the addition of new functions, updates and features instantly without affecting original applications.
Bare Metal vs. VMs vs. Containers: Choosing the Right Server Setup
| Point of Difference | Bare Metal | Virtual Machines (VMs) | Containerized Platforms |
| Performance | Highest - with direct hardware access & no virtualization overhead | Moderate - with slight hypervisor overhead | Lightweight - minimal overhead with efficient resource utilization |
| Resource Isolation | Complete physical isolation because of dedicated hardware | Strong isolation between virtual environments | Lightweight isolation at the application level |
| Scalability | Static, there is hardware-dependent scaling | Scalability with resource reallocation | Highly dynamic, instant horizontal scaling |
| Speed of Deployment | Slowest, as it requires physical hardware provisioning | Moderate deployment times | Fastest, or near-instant deployment and spin-up |
| Hardware Utilization | 100% dedicated resources | Partial resource sharing and allocation | Most efficient resource sharing |
| Security | Maximum security through direct hardware control | Robust security through hypervisor-level isolation | Microsegmentation with rapid security updates |
| Cost Efficiency | High upfront and maintenance costs | Moderate costs with improved resource utilization | Cost-effective, minimal infrastructure expenses |
| Portability | Least portable; hardware-specific | Portability only across similar infrastructures | Highest portability across different environments |
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Beyond Infrastructure Boundaries: Cloud4C's Integrated Deployment Solutions
It's no myth - the future of computational infrastructure will not just be about selecting a single platform but creating an adaptable ecosystem that evolves with the business needs.
With robust automation and AIOps-powered managed services, Cloud4C guarantees high availability, security, and performance for all deployed applications, ensuring that enterprises can operate at peak efficiency without disruptions. Our services encompass everything; from application provisioning to advanced cybersecurity frameworks, cloud migration services, and ongoing management, allowing businesses to focus on innovation while we focus on the infrastructure.
In addition to application deployment and modernization, Cloud4C offers a suite of solutions like DevOps services, and database management that further help organizations in their digital transformation journey. With Cloud4C’s cloud services for container technologies, businesses gain access to round-the-clock support backed by over 2000 experts with cloud certifications. We also offer a Zero Friction Cloud Migration Model supported by the well-recognized cloud adoption factory approach. More than 25000 databases and apps have been migrated by our teams.
To know more about our end-to-end solutions across various platforms and technologies, contact us today!
Frequently Asked Questions:
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What is the difference between bare metal and containers?
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Bare Metal is a physical server with its own hardware (CPU, RAM, storage). It offers maximum control and performance but is expensive to manage and scale. And containers are a lightweight unit of software that packages an application and its dependencies. Each container runs on top of a container engine, that emulates the OS of a computer.
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What is the difference between VMs and containers?
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Virtual Machine (VM) is a software that creates a virtual environment on a physical server. Each VM runs on top of a hypervisor, that imitates the hardware of a computer. Multiple VMs can run on the same server, sharing resources. Containers are standalone packages with application code and all its dependencies like libraries, frameworks, runtime etc., they are smaller, faster, and more portable than VM. Ideal for microservices architecture and cloud-native applications.
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What is the benefit of deploying containers on VM instead of bare metal?
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Deploying containers on VMs instead of bare metal offers better security, resource isolation, and improved management capabilities. VMs provide an additional layer of isolation, allowing network configurations, disaster recovery, and easier compliance management. Better choice for organizations with complex regulatory requirements or multi-tenant environments, compared to direct bare metal deploying.
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Do containers run on bare metal?
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Yes, containers can absolutely run on bare metal servers. Modern container platforms like Kubernetes and Docker support bare metal deployments, with direct hardware access and no virtualization overhead. Bare metal container deployments offer good performance, reduced computational complexity, and lower latency.
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Why containerization is better than virtualization?
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Containers consume lesser resources, launch almost instantaneously, and enable unprecedented application portability. Containers share the host kernel, reducing overhead of virtualization, as there's no need to provide a separate virtual kernel and OS for each instance. Containers also simplify Dev workflows and support microservices architectures.
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Is it possible to run a VM inside a VM?
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Nested Virtualization with modern hypervisors makes running a VM inside another VM possible. But this approach is known to introduce performance overhead and some complexity. While technically feasible, nested virtualization is typically used in specialized scenarios only, like development, testing, or specific cloud environments where hardware-level isolation is absolutely crucial.
