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Bare Metal vs Virtual Machines: How to Choose the Right Infrastructure for Your Workloads
September 24, 2025
When you're planning your infrastructure, a big question comes up: should you go with bare metal servers or virtual machines (VMs)? Think of these not as rivals, but as different tools in your toolbox where each is best suited to specific situations and needs.
At 639Cloud, we offer both bare metal and virtualized infrastructure because we know every business is unique. The right option really depends on what you’re running, what kind of performance you need, and where you want to go next. Once you know the strengths of each approach, you can build a setup that works for you today and grows with you tomorrow.
Back in the early days of computing, everything ran on bare metal. A single application would live on a dedicated physical machine, giving organizations total control and stable, predictable performance. The downside? Scaling was very slow and very expensive. Adding capacity meant buying new servers, installing them, and managing them manually. This turned out to be a time-consuming and costly process. Virtualization changed all of that. By introducing a hypervisor layer, a single physical machine could now run multiple virtual machines at once. Suddenly, teams could spin up new environments instantly, share resources across workloads, and scale up or down on demand. Cloud platforms built on virtualization took this even further, offering global reach and pay-as-you-go pricing models that made infrastructure more accessible than ever.
The advent of virtualization transformed computing. By adding a hypervisor layer, one physical machine could run multiple virtual machines. Teams could provision new environments in seconds, balance workloads, and adjust resources dynamically. When cloud computing emerged, users could access infrastructure globally and utilize pay-as-you-go pricing, making fundamental resources even more affordable. However, this new elasticity and virtualization tradeoffs raised concerns. The tiny overhead introduced by virtualization can compromise performance. Moreover, cloud expenses became complex and opaque, balanced by surprise costs like egress fees and expensive enhancements. Locking in a single vendor drove many businesses to grow by narrowing options. Infrastructure has come full circle, and bare metal is making a comeback, without the outdated rigidity of the past, of course. Modern cloud bare metal combines the performance of traditional metal with the convenience of on-demand resources.
The most obvious place to start is performance, particularly in how virtualization compares to bare metal. In bare metal computing, there are no hypervisors; your workloads are running directly on the hardware. This is a particularly important factor in the performance of AI training, real-time analytics, and high-performance computing workloads, where latency or predictability of performance is vital, because delays of any measurable amount affect outcomes drastically. Compared to bare metal, the performance in a virtual machine does take a hit. Modern hypervisors are efficient, but there is always a performance cost, typically between 2% and 10%. Added latency is the trade-off for flexibility: virtual machines let you run multiple environments on a machine and secure resource isolation for workloads, all of which can be provisioned in minutes instead of the hours or days typically associated with physical hardware setups.
At 639Cloud, we design our platform to accommodate both perspectives. Some customers wish for the predictability of bare metal, while others want the hypervisor flexibility. We provide both, without trade-offs.
Cost is often a driving factor when teams evaluate their infrastructure strategy, and it’s closely tied to scalability. Virtual machines tend to have lower upfront costs because the hardware is shared. You only pay for what you use, which makes them ideal for fluctuating or seasonal demand, like e-commerce traffic spikes or SaaS platforms with variable usage. If you need to scale quickly, VMs give you the flexibility to add capacity on the fly and scale it back down when demand decreases. Bare metal is different. While dedicated servers may come with higher initial costs, they often save money over time for stable, predictable workloads. With bare metal, there are no hidden egress fees or premium charges that can surprise you later. If your workloads are always on and consistent, bare metal can be far more cost-efficient in the long run. 639Cloud’s pricing is built to be transparent. Whether you’re deploying virtual machines or bare metal, you’ll always know exactly what you’re paying for and why.
Security is another area where the differences between these two models really stand out. Bare metal eliminates the hypervisor layer entirely, which means there’s less attack surface and no shared resources to worry about. For industries with strict compliance requirements (e.g. healthcare, government, or finance) this level of control can be essential. Virtual machines take a different approach. While they add a layer of abstraction, they also provide strong workload isolation. This makes them perfect for multi-tenant environments, such as SaaS applications or shared hosting platforms, where keeping workloads separated is a priority. Both models have a place in modern security strategies, and 639Cloud is built to support compliance across the board. Whether you need full hardware-level control or secure virtualized environments, we’ve got you covered.
Bare metal is a natural fit for workloads where performance, predictability, and control are critical. If you’re running AI and machine learning models, GPU-heavy rendering, scientific simulations, or compliance-critical systems, bare metal delivers the dedicated resources you need. It’s also ideal for long-running services where stable costs matter more than instant elasticity. With 639Cloud’s bare metal offering, you get modern, CPU-optimized servers powered by renewable energy. You’ll never deal with noisy neighbors or performance throttling, just clean, reliable infrastructure that’s ready to scale with your business.
Virtual machines excel in environments where agility and speed are the priority. Development teams love them because they can quickly spin up isolated environments for testing and experimentation. Businesses with seasonal or unpredictable demand benefit from the ability to scale resources up and down without overpaying for unused capacity. VMs are also perfect for multi-tenant SaaS platforms, where secure separation between customer workloads is non-negotiable. With 639Cloud, you can provision VMs in minutes, manage them globally through our streamlined interface, and avoid the unpredictable pricing models of traditional hyperscalers.
The debate between bare metal and virtual machines isn’t about which one is better, it’s about which one is better for you. Bare metal delivers unmatched performance and control for stable, mission-critical workloads. Virtual machines provide speed, flexibility, and scalability for dynamic environments that change quickly. At 639Cloud, you don’t have to choose just one path. We give you the freedom to deploy infrastructure that aligns with your exact needs, with transparent pricing and powerful tools that make managing your compute environment simple. Whether you’re building AI clusters, launching a SaaS platform, or running compliance-critical applications, 639Cloud has the infrastructure to support your vision. The future of your business deserves more than a one-size-fits-all cloud, and we’re here to help you build it.