Cloud vs Dedicated
Below are some of the key advantages of Cloud Servers in comparison to traditional Dedicated Servers:
Cloud Servers |
Traditional Dedicated Servers |
|
|---|---|---|
| Upgrades | Hardware Independent – The underlying server hardware may be upgraded or changed without affecting operating system or applications. | Operating system and applications are tied to the physical server. This makes upgrades complex and time consuming. |
| Console Access | Console level access to servers – Ability to repair, upgrade, or reinstall operating systems remotely. | Console level access requires special hardware and may still require manual CD, DVD, or floppy insertions for major changes to OS and applications. |
| Efficiency | Efficient use of hardware – runs multiple servers on the cloud and takes advantage of unused resources. | Total server capacity is unusable due to segmentation and inability of certain applications to coexist peacefully on the same operating system. |
| Scalability | Instant scalability – additional resources such as RAM, processors, and disk space can be added to servers typically with only a simple reboot. | Difficult to scale – components must be installed or swapped in order to expand capacity and there is a risk of extended downtime during upgrades. |
| Cost | Lower cost – A physical host server’s hardware resources can be efficiently shared across multiple workloads. | A physical server is required for each workload. The total cost is much higher when deploying multiple physical servers. |
| Backups | Snapshots may be taken allowing you to revert to a previous version of your server. This is useful when making operating system upgrades or other significant changes that may be untested. | Once changes are made to the physical server, your only option is to restore from a backup which is time consuming and sometimes unpredictable. |
| Maintenance | Servers are portable and can be easily moved or copied to another host for backup, maintenance, or disaster recovery purposes. | Hardware maintenance requires downtime for the duration of the maintenance. |
| High-availability | Hosts can be configured in a cluster to automatically move guest servers (actively or passively) to another host in the event of a failure. | A cluster can be configured, but will require complex hardware and network configurations. It can only be used for specific applications running directly on the physical servers. |
| Cross-platform | Multiple operating systems can be run concurrently in the cloud – Windows, Linux, Ubuntu, etc. | Each unique operating system would require its own physical server. Required hardware drivers also add a layer of complexity. |
| Staging | Servers can be created on a temporary basis for testing or staging purposes. Servers will use available resources such as RAM and CPU time only while running. | The provisioning and de-provisioning of physical servers is not practical because of the manual labor involved. |
| Performance | Servers are faster because of their ability to burst to multiple cores when other servers are idle. Host servers are equipped with RAID 10 giving higher read/write performance. | The physical server is limited to the speed of its hardware. This speed is typically much slower than a host’s maximum potential. |
| Provisioning | Servers can be provisioned instantly skipping lengthy OS and software installations by utilizing templates and automated deployment tools. | Physical servers require manual labor and will delay time-to-market with tedious provisioning tasks. |
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