Cloud computing gets all the headlines, but bare metal hosting remains the choice for engineers and architects who need real, consistent performance. Here are seven compelling reasons to choose bare metal over cloud virtual machines.
1. No Virtualisation Overhead
Cloud VMs run on a hypervisor layer that sits between your workload and the physical hardware. This overhead—typically 10–30% depending on the workload—means you never get the full power of the underlying machine.
Bare metal hosting removes that layer entirely. Your application talks directly to the hardware, which translates to faster execution, lower latency, and more efficient resource utilisation.
2. Predictable, Consistent Performance
On a cloud VM, you share physical resources with other tenants. When they spike, you suffer — this is the well-documented “noisy neighbour” problem. Bare metal eliminates it completely.
With OVHSAS dedicated bare metal servers, your CPU, RAM and storage are exclusively yours. Performance is consistent whether it is 3am or 3pm on a Monday.
3. Full Hardware Control
Bare metal gives you access to every layer of the stack:
- Choose your own operating system and kernel
- Configure CPU frequency scaling and power states
- Access raw disk devices for custom storage configurations
- Deploy custom network configurations and firewall rules
- Run nested virtualisation (KVM, Proxmox, VMware ESXi) on your own terms
This level of control isn’t available on a cloud VM.
4. Better Price-to-Performance Ratio at Scale
Cloud VMs are convenient for small workloads, but the economics shift at scale. As soon as you need multiple vCPUs and high RAM, cloud pricing escalates quickly.
A Dual Xeon E5-2670 server from OVHSAS with 64GB RAM and 480GB SSD starts from £50/month. The equivalent cloud VM on a major provider would cost multiples of that — often 3–5x more.
5. Ideal for Proxmox, VMware and Private Cloud
Want to run your own private cloud? Bare metal is the foundation. At OVHSAS, many clients run:
- Proxmox VE for open-source VM and container management
- VMware ESXi for enterprise-grade virtualisation
- KVM for custom virtual machine environments
- Docker and Kubernetes at scale without shared-host constraints
You get the efficiency of virtualisation with bare-metal performance underneath.
6. Enhanced Security and Compliance
Shared cloud infrastructure means your data physically coexists with other customers’ data on the same hardware. For regulated industries — healthcare, finance, legal — this can create compliance challenges.
Bare metal hosting means your data never shares a physical machine with anyone else. This simplifies compliance with frameworks like ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, HIPAA and GDPR.
OVHSAS infrastructure is ISO 27001 certified, giving you a solid foundation for your own compliance requirements.
7. Zero Noisy Neighbour, Zero Surprise Bills
Cloud pricing is notoriously unpredictable — egress fees, IOPS charges, and traffic costs can make your monthly bill hard to forecast.
OVHSAS bare metal servers come with:
- Fixed monthly pricing — no surprise bills
- 1Gbit unmetered bandwidth included
- Free DDoS protection
- Zero setup fees
You know exactly what you will pay, every month.
Get Started with OVHSAS Bare Metal Hosting
OVHSAS, powered by Digitalberg, offers instant bare metal dedicated servers across a wide range of Intel and AMD configurations, starting from £12.99/month.
Browse bare metal servers at OVHSAS and deploy in minutes.