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workload performance and security. Some providers address this challenge by offering bare-metal cloud.

What are bare-metal cloud services?

A bare-metal cloud service is a variation on infrastructure as a service (Iaas) that allows users to rent and configure single-tenant servers, typically without a virtualization layer. Bare-metal cloud promises the flexibility and scalability of public cloud, with the predictability, granularity and security of local servers.

Not all workloads run well on the virtualized cloud instances that make up many IaaS offerings. For example, legacy applications that demand access to physical hardware, or workloads that are extremely stable and require no scalability, might be better fits for bare-metal cloud.

Bare-metal cloud services are similar to other cloud services -- they're accessible like Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance or an Azure D-series VM. The primary difference with bare-metal is that the service maps to a physical server rather than a VM. Since the server is rarely virtualized, users get complete access to the entire server directly and all of its compute, storage and network resources. A bare-metal cloud instance is almost indistinguishable from a more traditional server, but typically uses the same on-demand rental model that public cloud providers use.

There are numerous providers in the bare-metal cloud market, including Oracle, IBM, baremetalcloud, Rackspace and Internap.

Major public cloud providers, including Azure and Google, do not have strong bare-metal cloud offerings. AWS comes close with its Dedicated EC2 Hosts service, which commits an entire physical server to the user.

What are the pros and cons of bare-metal cloud services?

The primary difference with bare-metal is that the service maps to a physical server rather than a virtual machine.

The most notable benefit of bare-metal cloud services is direct control of the server and its resources. This is a far cry from typical virtualized cloud instances, which intentionally obscure underlying hardware operations from the users. Additionally, without the virtualization layer, bare-metal cloud reduces the overhead of a hypervisor, which can increase performance.

Because most public IaaS environments are multi-tenant, organizations are concerned with security and compliance. Bare-metal cloud instances address both of these concerns because they provide a single-tenant hardware platform committed exclusively to a single user. However, bare-metal clouds do not guarantee security or compliance; organizations need to understand the legal obligations and industry best practices for proper security and regulatory posture.

Bare-metal cloud instances can also be more cost-effective than public cloud instances because users generally pay only for the underlying hardware rather than usage. However, organizations must consider the costs and compare to in-house hardware acquisition, deployment and operational expenses.

However, compared to virtualized instances, bare-metal cloud services can be limited. For example, when a physical server is virtualized, admins can provision a wide range of standardized VM types from the underlying hardware. But a bare-metal cloud instance is a complete server, so there is a limited number of instance sizes and types available.

What makes bare-metal cloud management unique?

There are few fundamental differences in managing bare-metal cloud instances versus typical virtual machine public cloud instances.

For example, bare-metal cloud providers like Rackspace and Oracle provide management interfaces, including a console and command-line interface. The Rackspace control panel offers a web-based interface to start the cloud server, access and view KPIs, schedule tasks like snapshots and access support functions. Admins can use control panels to perform tasks such as server resets and power cycling -- tasks unthinkable with common VM instances.

However, bare-metal servers generally require a more granular level of management and control than common cloud instances. For example, Oracle organizes bare-metal cloud services into entities called compartments, which provide isolated cloud instances to other business units or projects. This means it is possible to monitor, manage and track billing for resources by activity or group, and assign granular security and data protection characteristics to each individual user. Admins familiar with managing VM-based public cloud instances may see an additional learning to set up and manage a bare-metal cloud environment.

Is bare-metal cloud a better option for higher-level services?

Bare-metal cloud services can be a good option when a workload's computing demands are relatively constant due to lack of scalability. Workloads that fit this model include those involved with big data analytics, backup and recovery cycles, media encoding tasks, machine learning, visual rendering projects and other I/O-intensive applications.

For example, a big data workload needs to ingest a large amount of data, transform and process that data and then pass results back to storage. Once completed, the server may remain unused for weeks or even months. This makes bare-metal cloud a viable option, rather than buying and owning servers permanently.

Find out if bare-metal cloud services are right for you

Evaluate the architectural, cost benefits of bare-metal

Do containers run better on bare-metal servers?

Link:
Discover the pros, cons of bare-metal cloud services - TechTarget

The open compute project (OCP) means you can get the designs that Microsoft, Facebook and (to a lesser extent) Google use for their data centers. The goal is to get original design manufacturers (ODMs) to build them for you rather than buying standard servers and switches from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Six years on, its still mainly the largest of companies with the largest of data centers that are buying OCP designs, Forrester principal analyst Richard Fichera tells CIO.com. Some of the larger financial services and large manufacturers are actively implementing OCP designs or OCP-like designs.

Even so, he says, the project has had a big impact on the hardware that enterprises and mid-size companies buy. Buying OCP-compliant systems is really still a high-end phenomenon but theres been a more subtle ripple effect over the last few years thats reached a long way.

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When OCP started, almost all the major server vendors had what they called value product lines; systems that were stripped down and a little less expensive, with specs that were a little lighter all the way round, from connectors to power supply efficiency, Fichera says. OCP really highlighted a lot of the ways they could take further cost out of their servers and, by this point, all the major vendors have servers that have been influenced by the OCP designs. You can see that by the way they design systems and the resulting pricing of the entry level of value systems.

But you wont see those cost-cutting measures reflected in the list prices, Fichera says. They dont necessarily advertise as this is a dirt cheap alternative to run your software but it gives them a tremendous amount of wiggle room when it comes to discounting.

[ A peek inside Microsoft Azures open source server and rack designs ]

Bringing prices down was always part of the OCP plan, says Open Compute Foundation CEO Corey Bell. We believe that everything should be more open because it allows for greater collaboration and communications; it drives down costs and it drives up effectiveness and efficiency. Where we used to be in the industry, vendors got input from customers but customers didnt have a seat at the table to design products. Collaborating and designing openly is better for everyone, and it drives down costs.

A lot of the OCP designs were too wild and crazy for enterprise data centers, but they have some very mainstream 2U two socket designs with very standard server specs now and thats trickled out into the industry, says Fichera.

Thats exactly what Bell wanted to see happen. Were trying to make it easy for everyone to consume OCP and were pushing to overcome more of the hurdles. As weve brought on more component suppliers and more service providers as well as full products, were getting closer. When a product is submitted to OCP, we think about who would this work for and how would they get it.

What OCP has already done is make cheaper systems available to everyone, albeit indirectly. The difference between enterprise-class servers and a high-volume cloud server could be as much as 20 percent, Fichera says, but he adds that theres now little difference in price between a value server from the traditional server suppliers and an OCP design.

What keeps many enterprises buying those value servers rather than OCP designs often has nothing to do with the hardware design, Fichera says. Medium-size companies are still very sensitive to service arrangements, he says, giving the example of companies buying several hundred servers who had been approached by server ODM Quanta with a slightly lower price than the traditional vendors, and turned down the deal.

The rationale behind the decision is that they werent ready, for that price difference, to take the risk of what it means to be supported by a company like Quanta, Fichera says. They fully understood that with a couple of hundred servers that they wouldnt be getting the focused attention of Dell or HP [that a larger customer would get], but they were nervous about relying on a company with no visible presence in end user support.

Thats an area OCP is working on, Bell tells CIO.com. At the end of the day, its not just about deployment; for mid-range and smaller businesses, distribution and support is key. Thats where some of the major vendors have done a great job. He notes that Dell and HP are already part of the OCP ecosystem, and Lenovo joined in early 2016. Were increasing and managing the ecosystem to provide that. There are going to be multiple players that enterprise will be able to go to, he promises.

Even larger-scale systems like HPEs Cloudline which uses an OCP design rather than the proprietary technology used in ProLiant servers, and is manufactured in partnership with Foxconn rather than by HPE are coming down market, says Fichera. Initially they were very cagey about selling only to really big users but I get the impression theyre coming down now. If you want a couple of thousand units instead of ten thousand, I think they'll talk to you now and they have a lot of competition.

[ How Rackspace will stay alive in cloud: Stop competing with Amazon, start partnering ]

While making data center power usage more efficient has been a big focus in OCP designs, thats one area that isnt directly relevant to enterprises (even though they typically pay more for power than cloud providers do). The biggest improvements require esoteric infrastructure like high-voltage DC power distribution that hyperscale cloud providers have adopted but few enterprises have in their data centers.

The good news is that both general customer demand and the lessons learned from OCP systems mean that server makers and the power supply vendors they all use have made their systems more energy efficient anyway. Systems continue to exhibit big jumps in capacity in terms of performance per server; every generation of the base semiconductors has become more power efficient and both system vendors and CPU vendors have become more focused on power efficiency, says Fichera.

In addition, many enterprises indirectly benefit from power efficiency improvements through cloud usage, Fichera points out. Widely available cloud substitutes for a lot of workloads have reduced the number of people who wake up and have that I have to build a new data center just to add more servers moment.

Even before OCP, the idea of buying barebones servers at scale appealed to some large businesses. Fichera knows of one large financial services company (he identified it only as one of the top 10 financial services organizations in the world) who approached an ODM in Taiwan. They tucked one of their servers under their arm and said Build me this but without this component, without that component, without this management agent; basically, build me a lower-cost version of this server. They bought probably 20,000 of them.

Bell wants OCP to make that kind of custom manufacturing accessible to businesses of all sizes. We want to make it easier to buy and use OCP, and to control your own destiny. With open collaboration, you can get exactly what you want, as opposed to being sold things you dont need.

See the article here:
How open compute cuts server costs in the enterprise - CIO