Table of contents
What is bare metal and how is it differentCost comparisonPerformance and reliabilityCompliance and securityScalability and modernizationWho benefits mostGetting started
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Bare Metal → Economics

Bare metal economics: Why more companies are ditching shared infrastructure

Shared infrastructure was once the default for fast, affordable hosting. But as workloads grow and margins tighten, more companies are cutting ties with the cloud.
Let’s break down why bare metal is becoming the smarter economic choice—and how it gives businesses back control of their performance, spend, and scale.
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What is bare metal, and how is it different from shared infrastructure?

Bare metal servers are physical machines dedicated to a single tenant. There’s no virtualization layer or hypervisor overhead—just raw hardware that your applications use directly.

Shared infrastructure, on the other hand, spreads one machine’s resources across multiple customers using a hypervisor. This is typical of shared hosting plans, public cloud VMs, and some VPS setups.

The core difference is isolation and maximizing server resources. Bare metal means total resource control and hardware-level customization. Shared setups introduce contention, abstraction, and variable performance.

Cost comparison: bare metal vs shared infrastructure over time

It’s easy to assume shared hosting or cloud VMs are cheaper. And upfront, they are. But over the long haul, bare metal can offer stronger ROI for consistent, high-performance workloads.

Here’s why:

  • No hypervisor tax: You get 100% of the CPU, RAM, and I/O—no resource sharing with noisy neighbors or the compute resources required for the hypervisor.
  • Predictable billing: Dedicated servers often have flat monthly pricing, unlike cloud’s variable hourly fees.
  • More value per dollar: High-performance tasks run faster and more efficiently, reducing total compute hours needed.
  • Fewer scaling penalties: Shared services often charge a premium for bandwidth, storage, or high CPU usage—bare metal doesn’t.

For example, if a fast-scaling ecommerce platform sees traffic spikes each quarter, bare metal lets it avoid the escalating compute and bandwidth costs of a cloud provider.

Performance and reliability: the hidden ROI of going solo

When you control the hardware, you control the performance.

  • No noisy neighbors: Shared environments can throttle your app when another tenant spikes usage.
  • Dedicated I/O and compute: Databases, media encoding, and real-time services benefit from faster throughput and lower latency.
  • Custom configs: Optimize CPU type, SSD speed, or network interface for your specific workload.
  • More uptime planning: With access to the physical layer, you can design better failover and redundancy systems.

All of this results in more stable, responsive applications without cloud overhead or unpredictable slowdowns.

Compliance and security: isolation makes everything easier

Many industries can’t afford to share infrastructure—literally.

  • HIPAA and PCI-DSS: Regulations often require isolated hardware or demonstrable tenancy separation.
  • GDPR and CCPA: Data handling transparency is easier when you own the entire stack.
  • Security policies: Patch management, access control, and logging are more effective when you’re not relying on shared hypervisors.

With bare metal, your team can enforce tighter security policies, pass audits more easily, and avoid the gray areas of shared environments.

Scalability and modernization without vendor lock-in

It’s a myth that bare metal can’t scale or integrate with modern dev workflows.

  • Automation-friendly: Many bare metal providers offer API access, OS templates, and provisioning tools.
  • Container-ready: Run Kubernetes, Docker, or microservices without the limits of a virtualized network layer.
  • Hybrid options: Pair bare metal for steady-state workloads with cloud for short-term bursts or CDNs.

Plus, you’re not locked into any one provider’s pricing model or ecosystem. Bare metal gives you full infrastructure ownership without sacrificing scalability.

Who benefits most from switching to bare metal?

Bare metal isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, but for the right workloads, it’s unbeatable.

  • SaaS companies: Predictable workloads and performance-sensitive apps benefit from dedicated hardware.
  • Ecommerce stores: Black Friday? No problem. Scale vertically and maintain consistent load times.
  • AI/ML teams: Need GPUs and fast interconnects? Bare metal beats public cloud on cost and performance.
  • Finance and healthcare: Audit-friendly setups and data privacy compliance are easier on single-tenant systems.
  • Gaming platforms: Millisecond latency and high throughput require more than a shared VM can deliver.

If your infrastructure needs are growing faster than your cloud budget—or your customers are noticing lag—it’s time to look at bare metal.

Additional resources

Bare metal vs hypervisor →

Key differences between bare metal and hypervisors, and some of their best functions and use cases

What is bare metal programming? →

Benefits, challenges, use cases, and more

IaaS vs bare metal →

Definitions, differences, and how to choose

Zachary Armstrong is a writer who specializes in breaking down complex subjects and making them easy to understand. He has a passion for technology, believes it can change the world for the better, and wants to tell the whole world about it.