Cloud Server vs Dedicated Server

The time for traditional dedicated server has passed. New revolutionary server virtualization and cloud computing technologies deliver Cloud Servers that perform and behave exactly like a dedicated server. However, cloud servers are more reliable, scalable, offer more management features, and simply clost less. Not all cloud service providers offer the same type of cloud servers as vServer Center's cloud servers. vServer Center is well known for its cloud servers' high performance, super reliable design, and rich features. The following chart contains 16 feature to feature comparisons of vServer Center's Enterprise Class cloud servers with majority of dedicated servers on the market today.

	Cloud Servers	Dedicated Servers
Operating System	Dedicated Operating System; Support dozens of operating systems	Dedicated Operating System; New hardware may not work well with old operating systems and device drivers.
Software Applications	Server owners can remotely install and manage any compatible software application	Server owners can remotely install and manage any compatible software application
Administrative Access	Root access for Unix Servers. Administrative access for Windows Servers	Root access for Unix Servers. Administrative access for Windows Servers
Remote OS Install	Yes	No
Remote OS Reinstall	Yes	No
Remote Server Console Access	Yes	No
Remote Reboot a freezing Server	Yes	No
Server Snapshots	You can take a server snapshot first, then make changes to the server. If unexpected things happen after the change, a simple click of revert snapshot will get your server back to the original state.	No snapshot feature.
Server Performance	Perform better than low end or average dedicated servers. See VMware Performance Benchmarks test scores.	High end expensive dedicated servers perform better than most cloud servers.
Data redundancy	Dual parity disks (RAID 6) plus two hot standby disks	Lots of dedicated servers are on a single disk. Some dedicated servers are on a single parity disk (RAID 5) with no hot standby disk.
Server redundancy	If a physical server fails, HA enabled cloud servers will be automatically switched to other live physical servers.	If a dedicated server fails, you will need to build a new server, reinstall OS, and restore data from backups.
Power redundancy	Cloud servers run on a computing resource pool which is served by redundant power PDUs, redundant power UPSes, redundant power generators, and redundant power grids (not all data centers were built this way).	Most dedicated servers have a single power supply. Some dedicated servers have dual power supplies but they are on a single power PDU.
Hardware resource scaling	Can add CPU power and disk space while the server is running.	Have to shutdown the dedicated server and causing downtime when upgrading CPU or disk space.
Hardware upgrade	When upgrade to a newer more powerful server, no need to reinstall OS or devices drivers. The same cloud server can run on different hardware.	When upgrade to a newer more powerful server, need to reinstall OS and device drivers.
Disaster Recovery	If your cloud server fails and is unrecoverable, you can simply power on the cloud server backup image. Your cloud server will be back and running in a few minutes.	If your dedicated server fails and is unrecoverable, you will need to reinstall OS, restore files and databases from backups which can take many hours.
Costs	$29/month to $199/month.	$99/month to $1500/month.

Authors vservercenter.com