Before the product makes sense, we need to understand the words in its name.

The three ways to use a computer

When you use a computer in the cloud, you are usually not getting a whole physical machine. Instead, the provider takes one very large physical server and slices it into many smaller pretend computers called virtual machines. A special layer of software, called a hypervisor, does the slicing and keeps each pretend computer separate from its neighbors. This is flexible and cheap, which is why almost everyone uses it.

“Bare metal” means there is no such slicing layer. You get the physical server itself, the real processors, real memory and real network cards, and nobody else is sharing it. Your operating system sits directly on the hardware, the way it would if you bought a server and plugged it in at your own office.

Why would anyone want that?

Most applications are perfectly happy on virtual machines. But a few kinds of software are fussy. Some are only officially approved, or “certified,” by their makers to run on specific physical hardware. Some need every last drop of performance and predictable speed. Some have licensing rules that count the processors in a very particular way. For these workloads, the slicing layer is a problem rather than a help.

Many companies want to move to the cloud but are held back by a few stubborn systems.

Picture a large company moving hundreds of applications to Google Cloud. Most move easily. But a handful of the most important ones, often big enterprise databases such as Oracle, are tightly tied to specific hardware, special licensing contracts, and years of carefully tuned settings. Rewriting them for the cloud could take years and carry real risk. Leaving them in an old data center means the company must keep running that data center just for them, and the slow connection between old and new makes everything awkward.

Google announced Bare Metal Solution in November 2019 to bridge this gap. The goal was to let businesses run specialized workloads, most famously Oracle databases, on dedicated hardware that sits very close to Google Cloud, so they could move first and modernize later. It lowers the risk of migration because the workload keeps running in the familiar way.

A managed service that gives you dedicated physical servers and storage, placed next to Google Cloud.

Bare Metal Solution is a Google Cloud service that provides dedicated, certified servers, storage and networking, all located in a secure facility close to a Google Cloud region. Google installs and looks after the physical parts: the servers, the storage systems, the power, the cooling, the cabling and the physical security of the building. You are responsible for what runs on top: your operating system, your database or application software, your licenses and your day-to-day administration.

Everything is connected to Google Cloud through a private, high-speed link, so your bare metal servers and your cloud resources can talk to each other as if they lived in the same neighborhood. You also get a single bill and a single support relationship with Google, instead of juggling several vendors.

A short dictionary for the words you will hear again and again.

Where the hardware sits, and how it is wired to everything else.

The regional extension

Every Bare Metal Solution environment lives in a regional extension. This is a secure facility, run by a third party in cooperation with Google, placed physically near a Google Cloud data center. Because the distance is small, the delay in sending data back and forth is tiny. Google has described a design goal of under two milliseconds of latency to Google Cloud, and in many cases measurements were even lower. Two milliseconds is a hundredth of the time it takes you to blink.

The managed connection

The regional extension is linked to the nearby Google Cloud region by a Partner Interconnect connection that Google provides and manages. From the point of view of your cloud network, your bare metal servers appear on private subnets that you can route to and from your virtual machines, your containers and your managed services.

What lives inside

Inside the extension, you have your servers, enterprise storage arrays and the network gear that ties them together. Google has worked with partners to provide the underlying systems; for example, the storage uses enterprise-grade arrays from NetApp, built to deliver fast and reliable performance for demanding databases.

flowchart LR
    subgraph GC[Google Cloud Region]
        VM[Virtual Machines]
        K8S[Containers]
        MGD[Managed Services]
        VPC[Your VPC Network]
        VM --- VPC
        K8S --- VPC
        MGD --- VPC
    end
    subgraph RE[Regional Extension - nearby secure facility]
        SRV[Dedicated Bare Metal Servers]
        STO[(Enterprise Storage)]
        SRV --- STO
    end
    VPC |Partner Interconnect - private low-latency link| SRV
        

Understanding the split of duties prevents nasty surprises later.

Bare Metal Solution is a shared-responsibility service. Google takes care of the heavy physical layer. You keep control of the software layer. This is very different from a fully managed database service, where Google also runs the database for you.

The actual machines and what you can put on them.

Servers in different sizes

Servers come in a range of configurations, from smaller machines to very large ones with many processor cores and a lot of memory. Google has added smaller options over time, for example an 8-core server, so that customers whose software is licensed per core can right-size their hardware and avoid paying for cores they do not need. The exact menu of server shapes changes as the service evolves, so always check the current product documentation when planning.

Operating systems

Bare Metal Solution supports the major enterprise operating systems that workloads commonly need, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise, Oracle Linux and Windows. You install and manage the operating system yourself, or you can ask Google’s professional services team to help with system administration tasks.

Storage you can choose

Storage is provided by enterprise arrays in the regional extension. You can request block storage presented as LUNs, which look like disks to your servers, and shared file storage over the network. You choose the performance level and size, and you can add capacity as your needs grow. The arrays also support features such as snapshots, which are instant point-in-time copies useful for backups and testing.

The smart design of the network is what turns separate hardware into a seamless extension of the cloud.

Your bare metal servers sit on private networks defined by you. You choose address ranges in advance, making sure they do not clash with anything else in your company’s network or your cloud network. Traffic between the regional extension and Google Cloud travels across the private Partner Interconnect link, never over the public internet.

Because both sides share routing information, a virtual machine in Google Cloud can reach a database on a bare metal server with a private address. An application running in containers can query that same database. A managed analytics service can read data from it. All of this happens with very low delay, which is the whole point of placing the hardware so close.

Your company’s own data center or offices can also connect into the same network through other private links or VPN tunnels, so users and systems everywhere can reach the environment according to the rules you set. Firewalls and routing controls decide who can talk to whom.

sequenceDiagram
    participant App as Application in Google Cloud
    participant VPC as Your VPC Network
    participant Link as Partner Interconnect
    participant DB as Database on Bare Metal Server
    App->>VPC: Sends a query to a private address
    VPC->>Link: Routes over the private link
    Link->>DB: Delivers the query in about a millisecond or two
    DB-->>Link: Returns the answer
    Link-->>VPC: Carries the result back
    VPC-->>App: Application receives the data
        

Why Oracle is the star of this service.

Oracle Database is one of the most widely used enterprise databases in the world. Many large companies run their most critical records on it, such as orders, payments and customer accounts. Oracle is known for rich features and strict rules about how and where it is licensed and supported. Running it on a virtual machine in some clouds can complicate support or licensing, which is why many organizations hesitate to move it.

With Bare Metal Solution, you run Oracle on certified hardware, the same way you would in your own data center. Features that administrators already know continue to work: Oracle Real Application Clusters for high availability across several servers, Oracle Data Guard for disaster recovery, Oracle GoldenGate for replicating data, and Oracle Recovery Manager, known as RMAN, for backups. Your existing database administrators, runbooks and support habits carry over almost unchanged. You can generally bring your existing licenses, though you should always confirm the terms with your software vendor.

Oracle is the headline, but it is not the only guest.

Any workload that needs dedicated hardware, certified configurations or unusual licensing can be a candidate. Examples include other enterprise databases and applications that are only supported on specific physical servers, software that depends on particular hardware features, and systems with strict performance needs that cannot tolerate the small variations that sharing introduces.

Because each workload has its own support rules, the first step is always to check with the software vendor and with Google that the combination is supported. Google also has other options for running licensed or specialized software. For example, Oracle and Google Cloud have since introduced a separate offering that places Oracle-managed database infrastructure inside Google Cloud data centers. This is a different service with a different responsibility model, so compare it with Bare Metal Solution using the latest documentation before deciding.

Because real hardware is involved, the journey has more steps and takes more time than creating a virtual machine.

flowchart LR
    A[Assess and check licenses] --> B[Choose region and size]
    B --> C[Plan network]
    C --> D[Order and provision hardware]
    D --> E[Install software]
    E --> F[Migrate data and test]
    F --> G[Cut over and operate]
    G -.-> B
        

Dedicated hardware does not protect you from mistakes, disasters or hardware failure unless you plan for it.

Two questions every plan must answer

How much data can we afford to lose? This is called the recovery point objective. How long can we afford to be offline? This is the recovery time objective. A payment system might answer “almost none” and “a few minutes,” while a reporting system might accept a day. Your design should match these answers, because stronger protection always costs more.

Tools you can combine

Within the database, you can use the built-in protection features your database vendor provides, such as clustering across several servers for high availability and standby copies in another location for disaster recovery. At the storage level, snapshots give fast restore points. At the Google Cloud level, the Backup and DR Service can protect databases running on Bare Metal Solution, storing backup copies where they can be kept safe and recovered when needed. Using more than one layer means a single failure never leaves you without options.

Layers of protection, from the building to the password.

Physical security

The regional extension is a secured facility with controlled access, monitoring and environmental protections. Your servers are dedicated to you, which removes the worry of sharing physical machines with other customers.

Network security

Traffic travels over private links rather than the open internet. You define who may reach your servers using routing and firewall rules, and you can restrict access so that only specific applications and administrators can connect.

System and data security

Because you manage the operating system and database, you are responsible for patching, hardening, encryption choices, strong authentication and monitoring of who does what. Good practice includes giving each person only the permissions they need, rotating credentials, and keeping detailed audit records of administrative actions.

Compliance

Google has described Bare Metal Solution as supporting recognized standards, including ISO certifications, PCI DSS for payment data and HIPAA for health information, plus regional certifications where applicable. Certification of the platform helps, but compliance still depends on how you configure and operate your own software, so treat it as a shared effort.

Dedicated hardware still needs watching.

A healthy operation watches four areas. First, the servers: processor use, memory, disk activity and temperature-related alerts. Second, the storage: capacity, speed and any warnings from the arrays. Third, the database or application: how fast queries run, how many connections are open, and any errors. Fourth, the network link: delay and throughput between the regional extension and Google Cloud.

Many teams combine their existing database monitoring tools with Google Cloud’s operations tools, so cloud applications and bare metal databases appear on the same dashboards and alerts. For hardware problems, Google provides support, with round-the-clock coverage for the most serious issues, and it handles hardware repair and replacement.

A subscription model with no big purchase up front, but still plenty to plan.

Bare Metal Solution is sold as a subscription. You commit to a hardware configuration for a period, pay on a recurring basis, and avoid the large up-front purchase that owning servers requires. You can add capacity as needs grow. Exact prices and terms depend on the configuration, region and contract, so work with Google’s sales team for a quote rather than relying on rough figures.

Every design choice has a price. Here is the honest picture.

Lessons that save time, money and sleepless nights.

Best practices at a glance

Anti-patterns to avoid

No. Compute Engine provides virtual machines created quickly and shared on physical hosts managed by Google. Bare Metal Solution provides dedicated physical servers in a nearby regional extension, set up through an ordering process.

Oracle is the best-known use case and the focus of Google’s documentation, but other specialized workloads that need dedicated or certified hardware may also fit. Always confirm support with the software vendor and Google.

Google has stated a design target of under two milliseconds of latency between the regional extension and Google Cloud, and in many cases it measured below one millisecond. Actual numbers depend on the region and setup.

Google, working with its facility partners, handles servers, storage, power, cooling, physical security and hardware repairs. You handle the software that runs on top.

In many cases you can bring existing licenses, but the rules belong to the software vendor. Confirm the terms with them before you commit.

Major enterprise operating systems are supported, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise, Oracle Linux and Windows. Check current documentation for supported versions.

Through a subscription model with unified billing alongside your other Google Cloud charges. You avoid a large up-front hardware purchase and can add capacity as you grow.

Yes. Over the private connection, virtual machines, containers and managed services in Google Cloud can reach your bare metal servers using private addresses, subject to the firewall and routing rules you define.

Combine several layers: clustering for high availability, a standby copy in another location, storage snapshots and a backup service. Then test your recovery procedures regularly.

It can be, if the workload truly needs dedicated hardware. For many organizations it is better viewed as a bridge that gives time to modernize at a comfortable pace.

Bare Metal Solution lets companies bring hardware-bound, certified or heavily licensed workloads, most often Oracle databases, into the Google Cloud neighborhood without forcing a risky rewrite. Dedicated servers and enterprise storage live in a secure regional extension, joined to your cloud network by a private, low-latency link. Google looks after the physical layer, billing and support, while your team keeps control of the operating system and software. Used thoughtfully, with careful planning of networks, licensing, backups and capacity, it is a practical bridge that protects what works today while opening the door to what you want to build tomorrow.