IT Infrastructure & Servers

A virtual private server resides on hardware that is shared with other virtual servers, each running its own operating system and applications. Generally offered by a hosting provider or cloud provider, it is inherently flexible and quick to set up.

This article compares bare metal cloud and dedicated servers, outlining their definitions, pros, cons, and key differences. It guides you in choosing the right infrastructure based on performance, scalability, budget, and security needs, highlighting OVHcloud's solutions.

A dedicated gaming server is a standalone machine exclusively hosting multiplayer video games. It offers superior performance, low latency, and enhanced stability by dedicating all resources to the game. This provides players with a smoother, more reliable experience, unlike shared or peer-to-peer hosting.

A machine learning (ML) server is a specialised computing system designed to handle the intensive demands of training and deploying ML models. Unlike traditional machines, ML servers feature high-performance GPUs, ample RAM, fast storage, and optimised networking for parallel computations, enabling rapid development and deployment of AI solutions.

AI servers are specialised computing systems designed for demanding AI workloads like machine learning. Unlike traditional servers, they utilise specialised hardware, such as GPUs and AI accelerators, for the parallel processing of massive datasets. They offer increased efficiency, real-time insights, enhanced security, and scalability for various AI applications.

Validator nodes are crucial for blockchain security, verifying transactions and proposing blocks. They differ from full nodes by actively participating in consensus. Running one involves hardware costs, staking crypto, and technical setup, offering financial rewards and contributing to network decentralisation and security.

Bare Metal Cloud provides exclusive access to physical servers without virtualisation. This delivers high power and enhanced security for demanding workloads like HPC, gaming, and databases. While offering dedicated resources, it may be less flexible and more costly than virtualised IaaS, but provides full hardware control.

Server redundancy ensures continuous service availability by using duplicate servers and components, eliminating single points of failure. If a primary server fails, a backup seamlessly takes over its workload. This involves failover processes, replication, and potentially geographically separate disaster recovery sites.

Server provisioning is configuring a server to host applications or services. It streamlines deployments, improves security, and optimises resource usage for enhanced efficiency and scalability.

Server monitoring is the process of systematically tracking, measuring and observing the operations and processes on a server. The primary goal of server monitoring is to collect data that can be used to assess the health and condition of the server, ensuring that it operates at optimal performance levels and ensuring applications such as software-as-a-service (SaaS) run flawlessly.

IT infrastructure refers to the combined group of technology elements including hardware, software, networks, facilities, and all the necessary components that support the management, processing, and storage of information.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a modern approach to managing computing infrastructure using code. It automates setup, configuration, and management, enabling faster, more reliable deployments. IaC increases speed and efficiency, enhances consistency and reliability, and promotes scalability and flexibility.

High Availability ensures IT systems run continuously, minimising downtime. It eliminates single points of failure using redundancy, automatic failover, and reliable failure detection. This maintains accessibility, prevents revenue loss, and protects business reputation through consistent operational performance.

Dedicated servers are physical computers located in a datacentre, with all servers’ resources allocated exclusively to a single client. Dedicated servers are powerful, highly flexible and used as the foundation for many complex IT projects.

Dedicated server hosting offers a physical server that is configured and used exclusively by a business, instead of being shared with other enterprise. This leads to performance, reliability and privacy gains across the board as well as giving the organisation complete control of its server solution.

A co-location datacentre is an infrastructure where a company hosts its equipment. Unlike dedicated datacentres, colocation centers allow customers to share space with optimized resources.

Bare metal servers are physical services based on a server and allocated to an individual customer. Each server is a physical device without a hypervisor preinstalled, and all of its resources are dedicated to the single client.

Server uptime is the amount of time a server is operational. Downtime is when a server is unavailable. Both are measured in percentages. High uptime is crucial for online businesses to ensure continuous service and maintain a positive brand image.

Compare dedicated and non-dedicated servers by performance, cost, security, and scalability. Figure out what you need based on use cases, features, and workload support, then choose the right one for your website, app, or business.