This page compares the OpenMetal Large v4 bare metal server against the AWS i4i instance family, the closest match by storage-optimized spec profile. The comparison is structural, not just price-vs-price: it covers tenancy model, egress billing, management access, commitment terms, and total cost of ownership for sustained workloads. Both platforms serve different operational models, and the right choice depends on workload profile, scale, and organizational requirements.
Key Takeaways
- Dedicated hardware vs shared tenancy: The Large v4 provides 32 physical cores, 512 GB DDR5-5200, and 12.8 TB persistent NVMe on single-tenant dedicated hardware. AWS i4i instances share physical hosts unless you pay for a dedicated host, and instance storage is ephemeral — lost on stop or terminate.
- Fixed monthly pricing vs metered billing: OpenMetal charges a flat monthly rate with optional 1–5 year price locks. AWS i4i bills hourly (on-demand) or requires 1/3-year reserved instance commitments with less pricing flexibility.
- 95th-percentile egress vs per-GB transfer: OpenMetal’s egress model is structurally cheaper for sustained bandwidth. At 50 TB/month, AWS egress charges alone can exceed the entire OpenMetal monthly rate.
- Full IPMI vs SSH/SSM only: The Large v4 includes full IPMI access (power, console, BIOS, OS install). AWS provides no equivalent out-of-band management for i4i instances.
- Persistent local NVMe vs ephemeral storage: Large v4 NVMe drives persist across reboots and power cycles. AWS i4i ephemeral storage is lost on stop/terminate, requiring EBS for persistence at additional cost and latency.
- HIPAA-eligible with BAA available: OpenMetal is HIPAA compliant at the organizational level and offers BAAs. Large v4 servers in Ashburn and Los Angeles are hosted in HIPAA-compliant facilities. AWS HIPAA eligibility requires a separate BAA and is limited to specific services.
Spec Comparison
| Component | OpenMetal Large v4 | AWS i4i.4xlarge | AWS i4i.metal |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | 32 physical cores / 64 threads (dedicated) | 16 vCPUs (shared host) | 128 vCPUs (dedicated host) |
| RAM | 512 GB DDR5-5200 | 128 GB | 1,024 GB |
| Storage | 12.8 TB Micron 7500 MAX NVMe | 1x 3,750 GB NVMe (ephemeral) | 8x 3,750 GB NVMe (ephemeral) |
| Network | 20 Gbps private (LACP), 4 Gbps public | Up to 25 Gbps | 75 Gbps |
| Tenancy | Single-tenant dedicated hardware | Shared (dedicated host extra) | Dedicated |
| Remote Management | Full IPMI (power, console, BIOS, OS install) | SSH/SSM only | SSH/SSM only |
| Boot/Data Isolation | Dedicated RAID 1 boot drives | EBS boot volume (shared backend) | EBS boot volume (shared backend) |
| Storage Persistence | Local NVMe (persistent across reboots) | Ephemeral (lost on stop/terminate) | Ephemeral (lost on stop/terminate) |
Note on instance selection: The i4i.4xlarge is the closest match by price tier . The i4i.metal matches closer on raw specs but costs significantly more. Neither provides the same combination of dedicated hardware + persistent local NVMe + IPMI access that the Large v4 offers.
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Processor: Dedicated Cores vs Shared vCPUs
The Large v4 runs dual Intel Xeon Gold 6526Y processors (Emerald Rapids) at 2.8 GHz base / 3.9 GHz turbo, providing 32 physical cores and 64 threads on dedicated hardware. Every cycle is yours — no noisy-neighbor contention, no CPU steal time, no shared scheduling.
AWS i4i instances use Intel Ice Lake Xeon processors. The i4i.4xlarge provides 16 vCPUs on a shared physical host, meaning CPU time is shared with other tenants. The i4i.metal provides 128 vCPUs on a dedicated host, but at a significantly higher price point. Neither option exposes BIOS-level control for workload-specific tuning (power profiles, hyper-threading toggles, memory interleaving).
The Large v4’s Xeon Gold 6526Y also includes Intel AMX for INT8/BF16 matrix operations in ML inference and AVX-512 with dual FMA units for vectorized compute — hardware accelerators that are available directly on bare metal without hypervisor overhead.
Memory: 512 GB DDR5-5200 vs Cloud Instance RAM
The Large v4 ships with 512 GB DDR5-5200 ECC across 8 of 16 DIMM slots, delivering approximately 665 GB/s aggregate bandwidth across 16 memory channels. Eight open DIMM slots provide a clear upgrade path to 1 TB or beyond without replacing existing modules.
The i4i.4xlarge provides 128 GB (4x less), and the i4i.metal provides 1,024 GB but at a much higher cost. AWS instance memory is fixed at provisioning — changing it requires migrating to a different instance size. The Large v4’s physical DIMM slots mean RAM upgrades are a hardware operation on the same server, with no instance migration or downtime planning required.
ECC is standard across all OpenMetal configurations, catching and correcting single-bit memory errors before they affect running workloads. Upgrading to 1 TB activates Intel TDX support for hardware-isolated confidential computing (see Security section below).
Storage: Persistent NVMe vs Ephemeral Instance Storage
Boot and data isolation
The Large v4 separates boot and data storage into dedicated drive pools. Two 960 GB SSDs serve as dedicated OS drives in RAID 1, keeping system-level I/O completely off the data NVMe drives. AWS i4i uses EBS for boot volumes on a shared storage backend — boot I/O competes with other EBS users on the same physical storage infrastructure.
Micron 7500 MAX data drives
The Large v4 ships with 2x 6.4 TB Micron 7500 MAX NVMe SSDs (12.8 TB total). These drives use Micron’s 232-layer 3D TLC NAND with PCIe Gen4 x4, delivering 7,000 MB/s sequential read and 5,900 MB/s sequential write with up to 1.1M random read IOPS.
The critical difference is persistence. Large v4 NVMe drives persist across reboots, power cycles, and maintenance events. AWS i4i instance storage is ephemeral — all data is lost when the instance stops or terminates. To get persistent storage on i4i, you must add EBS volumes at additional cost ($0.08/GB/mo for gp3) , introducing network latency between the instance and its data. The Large v4 has no such trade-off: local NVMe is both fast and persistent.
| Metric | Micron 7500 MAX (6.4 TB) |
|---|---|
| Sequential Read | 7,000 MB/s |
| Sequential Write | 5,900 MB/s |
| Random Read IOPS | 1,100,000 |
| Random Write IOPS | 400,000 |
| Read Latency (typical) | 70 µs |
| Write Latency (typical) | 15 µs |
| Endurance (TBW) | 35,040 TB (3 DWPD / 5 years) |
Source: Micron 7500 Tech Prod Spec Rev. A 10/2023. AWS i4i instance store performance specs are not directly comparable as they depend on instance size and host utilization.
Networking
The Large v4 provides 20 Gbps private bandwidth via dual 10 Gbps LACP-bonded interfaces and 4 Gbps public bandwidth (burst up to 40 Gbps). All private (VLAN) traffic between OpenMetal servers is free with no cross-AZ charges. AWS i4i.4xlarge provides up to 25 Gbps but charges $0.01/GB for cross-AZ traffic — a cost that adds up quickly in distributed architectures.
OpenMetal includes a 99.96% network SLA (actual uptime exceeds 99.99% since 2022) and DDoS protection up to 10 Gbps per IP at no additional cost. AWS Shield Standard is included with i4i, but Shield Advanced costs $3,000/month .
Egress pricing: 95th-percentile billing, not per-GB transfer.
OpenMetal bills public egress on the 95th-percentile model with included base egress. Only traffic exiting VLANs to the public internet is billable. Additional bandwidth is $375/mo per 1 Gbps. AWS charges per-GB: $0.09/GB for the first 10 TB, tiered after. At 50 TB/month, AWS egress alone could cost approximately $4,500/month — potentially more than the entire OpenMetal server.
Security and Confidential Computing
The Large v4 provides a stronger default isolation posture than AWS i4i shared-tenancy instances. Every Large v4 is single-tenant dedicated hardware with no shared components, no hypervisor layer, and full BIOS-level control via IPMI.
- Intel TDX (Trust Domain Extensions): Hardware-isolated trust domains that protect VMs from the underlying hypervisor and other VMs. Requires 1 TB RAM upgrade (8 open DIMM slots available). Remote attestation provides cryptographic verification of system integrity. AWS Nitro Enclaves offer a similar concept but are limited to specific instance types and require the Nitro SDK.
- Intel SGX (Software Guard Extensions): Application-level enclaves available by default on all Large v4 servers. No additional configuration or cost.
- Measured boot: Secure boot process with integrity verification at each stage, accessible through IPMI BIOS configuration.
- Physical isolation: No shared CPU, memory, storage, or network hardware. AWS i4i.4xlarge shares the physical host with other tenants; dedicated hosts are available at additional cost.
For regulated workloads (AI/ML training on sensitive data, blockchain validators, healthcare data processing, financial services), the combination of TDX + single-tenant hardware + IPMI provides a security posture that AWS shared instances cannot match without moving to dedicated hosts and Nitro Enclaves at significantly higher cost.
HIPAA and Regulatory Compliance
OpenMetal is HIPAA compliant at the organizational level and offers Business Associate Agreements (BAAs). Large v4 servers deployed in Ashburn, VA and Los Angeles, CA are hosted in HIPAA-compliant facilities. Data center certifications include SOC 1/2 Type II, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and NIST 800-53 HIGH (Ashburn) and SOC 1/2, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS (Los Angeles).
AWS also supports HIPAA via BAA, but HIPAA eligibility is limited to specific AWS services . With OpenMetal, HIPAA compliance applies at the infrastructure level — every workload running on the server is covered under the same BAA, with no per-service eligibility checks.
When Each Platform Wins
The Large v4 and AWS i4i serve different operational models. The right choice depends on workload profile, scale, and organizational requirements.
When OpenMetal Wins
- Sustained 24/7 workloads: Fixed monthly pricing beats hourly billing for servers that run continuously. No reserved instance commitment gymnastics.
- Egress-heavy workloads: 95th-percentile billing is structurally cheaper than per-GB for CDN origins, API backends, data distribution, and streaming services.
- Compliance and isolation: Single-tenant dedicated hardware with IPMI, HIPAA eligibility, and Intel TDX (with RAM upgrade) provides a stronger isolation posture than shared-tenancy cloud instances.
- Predictable budgeting: Fixed monthly rate with optional 5-year price lock eliminates cost variability. No surprise egress bills, no reserved instance expiration planning.
- Persistent local storage: NVMe drives persist across reboots. AWS i4i ephemeral storage is lost on stop/terminate, requiring EBS for persistence (additional cost and latency).
When AWS Wins
- Scale-to-zero: Workloads that run intermittently (batch jobs, dev/test, event-driven) pay nothing when idle. OpenMetal’s fixed monthly rate applies regardless of utilization.
- Deep ecosystem integration: Lambda, DynamoDB, SageMaker, Kinesis, and other AWS-native services have no equivalent on bare metal. If your architecture depends on managed AWS services, the integration cost of replacing them exceeds the infrastructure savings.
- Global edge presence: AWS has 30+ regions and 400+ edge locations. OpenMetal operates in 4 regions. For workloads requiring sub-10ms latency to end users worldwide, AWS CloudFront or similar CDN services are difficult to replicate on dedicated infrastructure.
- Fully managed operations: AWS handles OS patching, hardware replacement, and scaling automatically. OpenMetal’s base support covers hardware and provisioning, but the customer manages the OS and application layer (or purchases Assisted Management).
- Sub-$10k/month cloud spend: At lower spend levels, the operational overhead of managing dedicated servers may outweigh the cost savings from fixed pricing.
Ready to Compare Costs for Your Workload?
Tell us about your current cloud spend and workload profile. We’ll provide a side-by-side cost analysis for the Large v4 vs your current AWS deployment.
How the Large v4 Compares to Public Cloud
Cost Model Comparison
| Dimension | OpenMetal Large v4 | AWS i4i Family |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Fixed monthly, lock up to 5 years | On-demand hourly, or 1/3-year reserved instances |
| Egress | 95th-percentile billing; included base egress; $375/mo per additional 1 Gbps | Per-GB ($0.09/GB first 10 TB, tiered after) |
| Private traffic | Included (no cost) | Free within same AZ; cross-AZ $0.01/GB |
| IPMI / remote console | Included | Not available |
| Hypervisor licensing | None (bare metal) | Included in instance cost |
| Commitment | Monthly with optional 1-5 year price lock | On-demand (no commitment) or 1/3-year reserved |
| Ramp pricing | Available for migrations (avoid paying double) | Not available |
| DDoS protection | Included (up to 10 Gbps per IP) | AWS Shield Standard (included); Advanced ($3,000/mo) |
| Support | Base included; Assisted Management available | Business/Enterprise support plans (extra) |
Total Cost of Ownership: 3-Node Cluster, 12 Months
Estimate for a sustained workload running 24/7 for 12 months on a 3-node cluster:
| Cost Component | OpenMetal (3x Large v4) | AWS (3x i4i.4xlarge Reserved 1yr) |
|---|---|---|
| Compute | Fixed monthly x 12 | ~$1.248/hr x 3 x 8,760 hrs |
| Storage | Included (38.4 TB NVMe) | EBS gp3 for persistent: $0.08/GB/mo |
| Egress (5 TB/mo) | Included in base | ~$450/mo ($0.09/GB) |
| Egress (50 TB/mo) | 95th-pct overage if above base | ~$4,500/mo |
| Support | Base included | Business plan ~$100+/mo |
| DDoS | Included | Shield Standard included |
| IPMI | Included | N/A |
Key insight: The cost gap widens with egress volume. At 5 TB/month egress, the difference is moderate. At 50 TB/month (common for CDN origins, API-heavy SaaS, data distribution), AWS egress charges alone can exceed the entire OpenMetal monthly rate.
Organizations spending above $20,000/month on public cloud infrastructure typically see close to 50% cost reduction when moving sustained workloads to OpenMetal. Organizations under $10,000/month may find that the operational overhead of managing dedicated hardware outweighs the cost savings.
Large v4 Deployment Options
Bare Metal Dedicated Server
Deploy a Large v4 as a standalone bare metal server with full root access and IPMI remote management. Every server is single-tenant dedicated hardware with no shared components. Pre-built images are available for Big Data, Virtualization, and High Performance Computing environments, or install a custom OS via IPMI console access. Pricing is fixed monthly with the option to lock rates for up to 5 years. Ramp pricing is available for migrations from other providers, allowing you to avoid paying for two environments simultaneously during the transition.
→ View pricing: openmetal.io/bare-metal-pricing
Hosted Private Cloud
Deploy a three-node Large v4 Hosted Private Cloud cluster running OpenStack and Ceph, production-ready in under 45 seconds. OpenMetal handles Day 2 operations including monitoring, patching, and incident response. No VMware licensing costs, no vSphere fees. Full OpenStack API and Horizon dashboard access. Ceph provides distributed block and object storage across the cluster with no additional licensing.
→ View pricing and configuration: openmetal.io/cloud-deployment-calculator
Both deployment paths: available across OpenMetal’s Tier III data center locations. Fixed monthly pricing applies regardless of utilization. No per-hour, per-query, or per-GB billing.
Get a Large v4 Quote
Considering a move from AWS? Tell us about your infrastructure requirements and we’ll provide a custom quote for the Large v4 — as a standalone bare metal server or as part of a Hosted Private Cloud cluster.
- Bare metal: Single-server or multi-server deployments with full root access and IPMI
- Hosted Private Cloud: Three-node OpenStack + Ceph clusters with Day 2 operations included
- Custom configurations: RAM upgrades, additional NVMe drives, TDX enablement
Ramp pricing available for migrations. All deployments include fixed monthly pricing, 99.96%+ network SLA, and DDoS protection.
Specifications, pricing, and availability are subject to change without notice. The information on this page is provided for general guidance and does not constitute a contractual commitment. Contact OpenMetal for current configuration details and pricing. AWS specifications and pricing are sourced from publicly available documentation and may not reflect current rates or configurations.