Bigstep Metal Cloud FAQ: What You Need to Know

We’ve gathered a couple of questions our customers asked us and decided to write a blog post to explain these to potential customers that are now pondering over which provider to choose. We hope we’ll cover some of the information you need, but keep in mind that each project is different and requires different resources, servers, apps, and licenses depending on use case. Our sysadmins can help you with any recommendation and configuration.

Is Metal Cloud a virtual machine or a dedicated server?

Our product, Metal Cloud, is definitely a dedicated server. We don’t deal with virtualization because we believe in bare metal power, speed, and resiliency. The reason why it’s called Metal Cloud, is because besides the advantages of dedicated servers, it also offers features that are normally found with cloud solutions, such as flexibility and scalability. Bigstep Metal Cloud makes it possible to switch, for example, from a server with 8 CPU cores and 32 GB RAM to one with 40 CPU cores and 384 GB RAM, with a downtime of just a few minutes, according to your current needs.

However, if let’s say you need your bare metal dedicated server divided into several virtual machines for your own business case, we can configure that for you.

Is the system you use preconfigured according to your necessities? (OS, web server, database server)

Whichever the use case and the industry (ecommerce, media, banking, insurance, advertising, big data, IT, healthcare, etc.), we can configure the server according to your business or workloads needs. You can choose the OS you want, we can set up your web or database server to best suit your purposes, keeping in mind the latest and most performant technologies and strategies.

Will you buy the apps licenses yourself or are they included?

It depends on which apps we are discussing.

For instance, for the server management platform licenses there are two options in different pricing categories: cPanel costs extra, while Plesk is cheaper. Keep in mind that the cost of the licenses depend on the number of accounts on the server.

We also have a range of big data tools available for your analytics workloads, such as: Cloudera, Hadoop, Tableau, MAPR, Elasticsearch, and more. For these, you need to acquire a license, however, some of the tools have free tiers than you can benefit from, if the budget is tight. If you need help in configuring the big data tools, you will have to get Advanced Managed Services (check it out, we currently have an offer!).

As you can see, for each service, we have multiple options so you can get the services you need, at the cost that you are comfortable with.

What type of access and rights will you have?

Again, it depends on your use case and on your knowledge of system administration. You can have root access and rights if you want to take the management of the servers into your own hands.

Or we can help with everything you need (the installation, configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting) with our Managed Services package. If you need even more services covered, you can always get the Advanced Managed Services. Here is a breakdown of all services found in each of the packages:

Fill in the form here to get a discounted rate on the bare metal dedicated server if you purchase one of the managed services packages.

What SLA do we offer?

Bigstep ensures a Service Availability for the Service of 99,995%.

Is the solution easy scalable when talking about storage, RAM & CPU?

It’s so easy! Our Metal Cloud platform was designed with scalability in mind. Scalability is an important feature especially for ecommerce websites/apps and big data workloads, but not only. Scaling is difficult with classic dedicated servers, but Metal Cloud has the cloud-like features which allow you to scale up or down anytime you need. Configure now, scale whenever.

With the on-demand feature, if are there times of low activity for your business you can temporarily switch to a smaller server in order to reduce costs. On the contrary, if you need extra resources, you can add at any time extra storage space to the existing drive, or even add extra drives. In the same manner, you can expand your infrastructure to add extra servers, temporarily or permanently. All this can be achieved from the user interface with very easy drag and drop features.

Will you have backup?

We always recommend getting backup services. Better safe than sorry, right? We provide an external backup service, which also features bare metal restore capabilities for a set price per GB. For more ambitious customers, we can provision complex DR infrastructures that are fully redundant and guarantee 100% uptime for your business.

Can you predict the month by month costs?

We offer transparent and predictable pricing. We know how important it is for companies to be able to calculate their spending, their investment, and their return on investment as easily as possible.

Compared to normal cloud vendors, where you can get charged for different services that were used without knowing, at Bigstep nothing will be charged extra except for the traffic.

Can you predict the costs for a future upgrade if needed?

Yes, of course. We’ll fully inform you about the costs to expect for a larger server, additional licenses, or other services you may need in the growth of your business.

To be competitive in 2021, you need high speed, low latency, minimal downtime, and scalability, but also a trustworthy provider and the proper support from your suppliers. Contact us, tell us your workload needs, and we’ll help you get ahead of your competitors with a proven bare metal dedicated infrastructure that will grow along with your business.