Introduction 

When the word server is said out loud, what comes to mind? A room of machines whirring quietly, buzzing about in the cold air? Well, your imagery might be correct, however, the word server has a different meaning altogether in the 2020s.

These days, servers refer to cloud-based instances instead of big bulky systems. And this disparity in ideology has led to the rise of today’s question, who wins out in a physical server vs virtual server battle?

To answer your question we have compiled this guide. Once you read through this guide, you will find the right answer to your question. 

Before we begin, it is important to note that despite the overwhelming shift toward virtual servers there is still a massive demand for the physical server industry. That being said, each business has its own requirements and no solution is one size fits all. To help you make a sound decision, here are 6 factors you need to consider.  

6 Essential Factors to help you decide  

Cost

First and foremost is the cost. If your business happens to be in its nascent stages, the cost is of utmost priority. Upfront costs for physical servers can be quite an ask. This is where the goodness of virtual servers comes in. Virtualization saves money. Having your own dedicated infrastructure can be a costly affair. And virtual servers can be extremely beneficial if you need a lot of servers. 

In the short term, the physical server vs virtual server debate has only one winner, virtual servers. However, as your business grows and expands and it attracts more traffic, you will soon find that the costs of using a virtual server can also increase rapidly. You could alternatively use virtualization software to eliminate these problems. However, the upfront costs might be a little too steep for your liking. 

If you want a quick solution, virtual is the way to go.  

Performance 

The next critical factor is performance. The fact of the matter is a virtual server will always be inferior to a physical server. Granted that both of them have identical capabilities. Virtualization will always be slower. A point of note is that this case holds true only if your server has to handle a lot of transactions, we’re talking in the tens of thousands per minute. If performance is your priority, a physical server is an ideal way to go. 

However, we advise caution as most servers run rather slowly. This is because the performance is not optimized. You will need to find a performance-optimizing solution that will help you speed up your server. 

Damage Recovery 

Despite all the claims of robustness, no server, virtual or physical can guarantee that it won’t fail. We still live in a world governed by human input. Hence, there is no real reason to trust virtual servers over physical ones, especially if the criteria is damage recovery. 

When there is a failure, the crucial element is time. The faster you can recover your data and get it back online, the better. Here, virtual servers trump physical ones, simply because they can restore the whole thing through a previously saved backup in a matter of minutes. For a dedicated physical server, this ordeal could take hours. 

While disaster and damage recovery is quick, it isn’t foolproof. Virtual servers may have an edge, however, the backup has to be reliable. This fact can come back to bite you when you realize that in real-life scenarios chances of recovery failure are quite high due to disk or network issues. Therefore, if damage recovery is your priority, having a good and reliable backup is of the essence. 

Security 

Another key point in the physical server vs virtual server debate is – security. For virtual servers, security is uniform. The reason is that over virtual servers, you already have a singular plan that focuses on the entire virtual server. In physical servers, security can be robust, however, setting it up is a rather cumbersome task. In virtual servers, the issue arises from the fact that you are relying on your service provider’s security method to protect your security from others who use the same server. If security is paramount, switch to a dedicated physical server. 

Availability 

This is one area where a virtual server will trump a physical server. Each and every time. When a physical unit collapses, the virtual servers can be easily transferred to another system. It is not to say that you cannot incorporate the same level of availability in physical systems. You can achieve that using open-source solutions. However, they lack the tight-knit integration of virtual solutions and as a result, are more likely to fail.    

Scaling and time management

When we think of scaling, it is about upgrades. Naturally, virtual servers are far better at this aspect than dedicated physical servers. To upgrade a virtual server, all you need to do is press a few buttons. Everything from the RAM to the storage space can be upgraded quickly. This ease of scaling allows you to upgrade your business modules and deploy new products quickly. Whereas when you are using physical servers, you will need some foresight before making big moves. Virtualization also helps cut down on power costs. 

Virtualization also trumps physical servers when it comes to time management. When you have physical servers, you will need to constantly monitor them, both from a hardware standpoint and there is need for 3rd party software for better management. All of these hassles are non-existent when you use virtual servers. They already have management tools that can help monitor the functionality and review information quickly.  

Conclusion

While the debate on physical server vs virtual server favors virtualization due to the ease of usage, remember that each business has its own needs. As we said, there are no one-size fits all solution. Therefore, you must analyze your business needs and figure out what suits your business best.