Virtual versus physical servers: what the experts recommend

Almost every company has a choice between virtual and physical servers. The decision is usually influenced by several factors, including: Systems support analyst

personal experience in the past;

advice from colleagues or acquaintances;

user reviews on the Internet and more.

How can you make a smart choice? Our experts, renowned specialists in the IT industry - Spartak Polishchuk , founder of Rubicon , and Roman Gershtun , founder of ProCRM , share their opinions, which were formed on the basis of personal experience and the experience of their clients .

Despite the fact that more and more companies are moving to the cloud, some business owners are still convinced that only the presence of iron in the office guarantees them peace and security for data.

Roman Gershtun also notes this : there is one point that clients often talk about - this is the desire to have their own server and manage it, in a word, to have a certain ownership right. But in fact, if you have your own server, you need to invest in it and constantly look after it. That is why a physical server works well only if the company has its own IT department and the ability to administer these servers, maintain their operability and timely upgrade. Therefore, if you do not have your own IT staff, it is best not to set up physical servers in your office.

Spartak Polishchuk noted that in the IT field, prejudices, in the literal sense of the word, do not exist. Most likely, they can be called fears. For example, fear of the security of their personal data, coupled with a lack of fundamental knowledge of the cloud, can lead customers to use physical servers.

Roman Gershtun

In addition to possible biases, there are still many myths surrounding virtual servers. For example, that clouds are expensive or dangerous. But how is everything really?

Roman Gershtun notes that there are usually three such myths. The first is cost, the second is security, and finally privacy. “Let's consider each of them. For example, that clouds are expensive. What is expensive? When you invest in a physical server, you pay the cost, the work of the system administrator. Then spend money on upgrades and technical support for that server. And with clouds, all these services are already included in the cost of services, ”says our partner.

The second point, as Roman Gershtun notes, is safety: “Let's simulate two situations. Fire in the office or "visit" of intruders. If the server is located in your office, its level of security is significantly inferior to virtual servers. "

And the third point is confidentiality. According to the expert, if even the American Pentagon can be broken, then it is easy to guess which server is more secure: a server of a specialized organization providing cloud solutions, or a server run by a system administrator who may not even have sufficient qualifications to ensure the proper protection level.

Roman Gershtun also expresses the opinion that one should not be afraid that information may be lost on a certain server, but that the data may disappear. This is a much bigger loss than just copying data to another resource. Of course, any cloud service has a much higher level of security than a physical server.