1. Science / Technology

Virtual Servers vs. Physical Servers

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Organizations need secure, reliable, and high-performance processing and storage solutions for their applications and data. A recent survey of Chief Information Officer (CIO) priorities indicated the following topics are key areas of focus for many IT programs:

  • Recovery and Business Continuity
  • Cloud Services
  • Cost Management

The Pros and Cons of Virtual Servers

Virtual Dedicated Server Hosting typically occurs in the cloud or on servers that are owned, maintained, and located offsite. Hiring a hosting vendor who offers secure cloud services is the most common way that organizations switch to virtualization. If you are 

Pros of Virtual Servers:

  • Fewer upfront costs, since you are not required to purchase hardware.
  • Potential for lower lifetime costs on configuration and maintenance.
  • Access to expert assistance on setup, configuration, maintenance, and software licenses.
  • Reduced need for in-house IT talent.
  • Potential to consolidate servers and increase workload efficiency.
  • Reduced environmental footprint, due to shared workloads.
  • With a powerful GPU VPS, businesses can improve their system functions and host many applications at once, making productivity far better.

Cons of Virtual Servers:

  • You are no longer independently in control of your physical server and the applications running on them.
  • Not all vendors are amenable to scaling your agreement up or down in small increments, which largely depends on vendor policies and service level agreements (SLAs).
  • Possible issues with application compatibility, which are best discussed with a knowledgeable vendor.
  • Potential for higher recurring monthly costs, as opposed to higher upfront investment.

The Pros and Cons of Physical Servers

Physical servers are generally owned, managed, and maintained by your company’s staff.

Pros of Physical Servers:

  • Your IT staff can fully customize and configure the server to your specifications and business requirements.
  • Your IT team has full access to your dedicated server resources 24/7/365, which can be advantageous for high-demand or business-critical operations.
  • Depending on your needs, the server may be located onsite or in a conveniently-located colocation facility.

Cons of Physical Servers:

  • Your IT staff will be responsible for setup, configuration, and maintenance on a continual basis.
  • Users cannot scale storage in small increments once you reach the maximum workload, since you purchase and own the hardware.
  • Requires physical or colocation space.
  • You may need to hire a contractor or vendor for help if you have difficulty with configuration or repairs.
  • Relatively high cost of server purchase, maintenance, and in the case of hardware failure, replacement.

As you see these were some of the differences between Physical servers and Virtual Servers. Virtual server hosting has matured and have more hybrid approaches where web facing servers may be virtual and back end, data crunching servers reside in a solo data center, resulting in a hybrid environment.

To learn more about Hyper V Server for business, visit Apps4Rent.

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