Hybrid vs. Cloud Servers – What’s the difference?
Hybrid and Cloud servers are both virtual server platforms that each have their own distinct advantages. To those new to the hosting industry, the differences between the two products can be a bit confusing. In this article, we’ll walk you through the difference between Hybrid and Cloud servers so you can make an informed decision.
Download Now – Infographic On Cloud vs. Dedicated Servers
What is a Hybrid server?
A hybrid server is a type of virtual server. Leveraging the power of KVM virtualization, each user is allocated their own slice of a server.
A Hybrid server works by taking a single dedicated server and segmenting it into several isolated virtual servers for users. Hybrid servers are similar to Virtual Private Servers (VPSes) but Hybrid servers are unique in that the resources are completely dedicated to each server and we only put a few tenants on each server.
Unlike a Cloud server, Hybrid servers cannot be resized so that we can guarantee the amount of resources that each user will be able to leverage. If an application outgrows its Hybrid server, then you would need to manually migrate it to a new plan just as you would on a dedicated server.
Hybrid servers are also not considered high availability as there is no redundancy built in. Users can run multiple Hybrid servers across different nodes in order to create their own redundancy if desired.
View the ServerMania Hybrid Servers product page to learn more.
Hybrid Server Recommended Applications
Hybrid servers are a good option for stable applications that don’t need to rapidly grow at any time. As Hybrid servers cannot be resized, they are designed for more consistent applications. Some common uses include:
- Personal web servers
- File storage
- Server monitoring
- Database hosting
Hybrid servers are a good option for these kinds of applications as they don’t necessarily need to be on high-availability servers and tend to be fairly consistent in their CPU and disk requirements.
What is a Cloud server?
A Cloud server is a virtual server just like a Hybrid server, but the key difference between the two is that a Cloud server consists of many individual dedicated servers that each perform a certain function such as CPU, memory, and storage.
Each component in the Cloud server is high availability because there are redundant servers running each operation, and if a particular Cloud node were to fail, resources are automatically reallocated to minimize downtime.
Cloud servers have a number of advantages including:
- High availability
- Scale resources at any time
- Deploy new Cloud instances at any time
- API and template functionality
View the ServerMania Cloud Servers product page to learn more about the unique features of cloud hosting.
Cloud Server Recommended Applications
Cloud servers are a very versatile product and are suitable for a wide variety of applications, including:
- Web hosting
- E-commerce sites
- Storage servers
- Database hosting
- VPN servers
- Game server hosting
Any application that requires high availability and needs the option to scale at any time is a great candidate for a Cloud server.
What’s the difference between a Hybrid and Cloud Server?
Here are the top five differences between a Hybrid and a Cloud server:
| Feature | Hybrid | Dedicated |
|---|---|---|
| High Availability | No | Yes |
| Clock Speed | 3.4GHz | 2.2GHz |
| API and Automations | No | Yes |
| Location | Dallas, Los Angeles, Amsterdam | New York City Metro |
| Scaleable | No | Yes |
| Billing Period | Monthly / Quarterly / Yearly | Billed hourly, charged monthly. |
#1: Availability
Hybrid servers are based on a slice of a single dedicated server, therefore they are not inherently redundant. Cloud servers on the other hand are redundant across all components and automatically failover in the event of hardware failure.
This high-availability means that Cloud servers are more expensive based on equivalent resources on Hybrid or Dedicated servers, but they are more reliable for downtime sensitive applications.
#2: API & Automations
Hybrid servers do not contain any API or automation capabilities. Our Cloud servers contain a robust API and recipes platform in order to help automate repetitive or complicated system administration tasks.
You can view API documentation here.
#3: Price
Both Cloud and Hybrid servers are an affordable solution. Cloud servers start at $5 per month and Hybrid servers start at $30 per month. Cloud servers can be upgraded to a new plan at any time as resource usage changes.
#4: Performance
Both Hybrid and Cloud servers are designed for consistent performance in order to avoid the noisy neighbour problem. Hybrid servers have higher performance for CPU intensive tasks and Cloud servers tend to have higher performance on memory and I/O intensive tasks.
#5: Scalability
As explained above, Hybrid servers cannot be scaled so that we can deliver dedicated resources to each user. Cloud servers on the other hand can be scaled up to 128GB of RAM at the touch of a button. Cloud servers leverage a large pool of servers that can be infinitely scaled in order to support even the largest applications.
As well, Cloud instances can be added in seconds and are only billed on a per hour basis. Hybrid servers are billed on a monthly basis and deploying new servers requires ordering a new product and our team deploying the server. This is generally a longer process.
In Summary
Both Hybrid and Cloud servers deliver high-performance virtual servers at a price point that works for any project. Whether you want to deploy a small 1GB personal LAMP server or a completely redundant e-commerce platform, we have you covered.
To learn more about ServerMania Cloud or Hybrid servers, click on the product links below this post or chat with us in the bottom right corner of your screen. We’re here to help you find the right server for your project at the best price.
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