Bare metal refers to physical servers dedicated entirely to a single user, providing direct access to CPUs, storage, memory, and networking without sharing with others. Unlike virtual machines (VMs), which share hardware through virtualization, bare metal guarantees exclusive use of resources—even when they’re idle.

VMs run multiple workloads on shared hardware, offering flexibility and easy scaling but sometimes causing variability in performance due to resource contention. Bare metal removes this variability by eliminating the virtualization layer, making it well suited for workloads that require consistent high performance, low latency, or specialized hardware.

While bare metal delivers predictable performance, VMs offer advantages in rapid provisioning, simpler management, and cost efficiency for applications that don’t demand dedicated resources.

Understanding the difference between bare metal and virtual machines matters because it shapes how workloads perform and scale.

Bare metal offers dedicated, physical resources, giving users full control over the hardware. This exclusivity eliminates the risk of “noisy neighbor” issues—interference that can occur when multiple virtual machines share the same physical cores.

Because of this, bare metal is often preferred for latency-sensitive applications, high-performance computing (HPC), or workloads that demand significant resources. It also allows for more tailored machine configurations aligned with specific needs.

In contrast, VMs provide flexibility and rapid provisioning but share resources, which can sometimes impact performance. Choosing between bare metal and VMs comes down to the workload’s demands for consistency, control, and scale.

• Bare Metal Instances
• Choosing the Right Infrastructure: Bare Metal vs. Virtual Machines vs. Containers
• Performance vs. Scalability: Virtual Machines vs. Bare Metal Servers