This page compares the OpenMetal Bare Metal Dedicated Server XL v4 with the AWS i4i.metal — the closest AWS equivalent by RAM and NVMe storage profile. Both offer approximately 1TB of RAM and 25–30TB of NVMe, but the structural differences in tenancy model, storage persistence, billing architecture, and remote management make these fundamentally different infrastructure categories. This is not a price-per-hour comparison — it is a comparison of ownership models, and the gap between them widens as egress volume, workload duration, and compliance requirements increase.
For full XL v4 hardware specifications, see the primary XL v4 spec page.
Key Takeaways
- Dedicated physical tenancy vs shared vCPU allocation — on OpenMetal, 64 physical cores belong to one customer; on AWS i4i.metal, 128 vCPUs are Intel hardware threads subject to hypervisor scheduling
- Persistent NVMe vs ephemeral instance storage — OpenMetal NVMe drives persist across reboots, OS reinstalls, and maintenance windows; AWS i4i instance storage is ephemeral and lost on instance stop or terminate, requiring EBS for persistence at additional cost
- Fixed monthly vs on-demand metered — OpenMetal billing is a flat monthly rate regardless of CPU utilization, storage IOPS, or runtime hours; AWS on-demand charges accumulate by the hour
- IPMI out-of-band management vs SSH/SSM only — OpenMetal provides full IPMI console access for OS reinstall and BIOS-level configuration; AWS instances are accessible only via the running OS
- 95th-percentile egress vs per-GB transfer — OpenMetal’s egress model does not penalize burst traffic; AWS charges $0.09/GB for data transfer out, making high-egress workloads disproportionately expensive
- Intel TDX by default vs Nitro Enclave opt-in — OpenMetal XL v4 ships TDX enabled; AWS Nitro Enclaves are a separate service with different isolation guarantees
Spec Comparison
| Component | OpenMetal XL v4 | AWS i4i.metal |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 2x Xeon Gold 6530 (Emerald Rapids) | Intel |
| Physical Cores | 64 dedicated | 128 vCPUs |
| RAM | 1024GB DDR5 4800MHz ECC | 1024 GB |
| NVMe Storage | 25.6TB persistent (Micron 7500 MAX) | 30.72 TB ephemeral |
| Storage Persistence | Persistent across reboots | Ephemeral — lost on stop/terminate |
| Network | 20Gbps private + 6Gbps public | Up to 75 Gbps |
| Tenancy | Single-tenant, dedicated physical | Shared hypervisor |
| Remote Management | IPMI out-of-band console | SSH / AWS SSM only |
| Confidential Computing | Intel TDX (default) + SGX | AWS Nitro Enclaves |
| Egress Model | 95th-percentile (burstable) | Per-GB ($0.09/GB us-east-1) |
| Pricing Model | Fixed monthly | On-demand hourly / Reserved |
AWS instance selection: i4i.metal is the closest match by RAM (1024 GB) and NVMe storage profile (30.72 TB). All AWS figures require verification at aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing and aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/i4i before use.
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Processor: Dedicated Cores vs Shared vCPUs
The OpenMetal XL v4 provides 64 physical cores from two Intel Xeon Gold 6530 processors. Every core is allocated to one customer — no other tenant shares CPU time, cache, or memory bandwidth with the XL v4’s workloads. BIOS configuration, CPU frequency governors, and processor affinity settings are fully accessible via IPMI.
AWS i4i instances use Intel vCPUs — hardware threads presented by the Nitro hypervisor. The i4i family uses Intel Xeon Scalable processors , but vCPU availability is subject to AWS’s hypervisor scheduling. For workloads that depend on consistent per-core throughput — latency-sensitive databases, real-time analytics, and ML inference — physical core dedication removes a variable that vCPU scheduling introduces.
The XL v4’s Gold 6530 includes Intel AMX for hardware-accelerated matrix operations, AVX-512 for SIMD-heavy workloads, and QAT for cryptographic acceleration — all available without hypervisor overhead on bare metal. On AWS instances, some CPU features may be unavailable or throttled by the Nitro layer.
Memory: 1TB DDR5 vs Cloud Instance RAM
Both the XL v4 and i4i.metal provide 1024GB of RAM. The difference is upgradeability and flexibility. On the OpenMetal XL v4, RAM is physical DDR5 4800MHz ECC across 16 DIMM slots with 614 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Custom configurations above 1TB (up to 4TB) are available by contacting OpenMetal.
On AWS, increasing memory beyond the instance’s fixed allocation requires migrating to a larger instance type — a disruptive operation that requires stopping the instance and restarting on different hardware. There is no in-place RAM upgrade path on AWS instances.
The XL v4’s 1TB RAM configuration also activates Intel TDX by default, enabling hardware-isolated, memory-encrypted Trust Domains for confidential workloads. AWS Nitro Enclaves provide a different isolation model with different attestation capabilities.
Storage: Persistent NVMe vs Ephemeral Instance Storage
This is the most significant operational difference between the XL v4 and the i4i family.
Boot and data isolation
OpenMetal XL v4 storage: Four Micron 7500 MAX 6400GB NVMe drives (25.6TB total) persist across server reboots, OS reinstalls, and maintenance events. Boot and data drives are on separate paths — an OS reinstall via IPMI does not touch the data NVMe pool.
AWS i4i instance storage: The 30.72 TB of NVMe on i4i instances is ephemeral instance store — data is lost when the instance is stopped, terminated, or moved to a different host during AWS maintenance. For any workload requiring data persistence, AWS i4i customers must provision EBS volumes separately — adding cost, adding network latency (EBS is network-attached storage), and adding a point of failure not present in the XL v4’s direct-attached NVMe architecture.
Micron 7500 MAX NVMe data drives
NVMe performance comparison per drive (source: Micron 7500 NVMe SSD Tech Prod Spec Rev. A 10/2023):
| Metric | OpenMetal XL v4 (per drive) | AWS i4i NVMe | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sequential Read | 7,000 MB/s | N/A | Survives reboot/reinstall |
| Sequential Write | 5,900 MB/s | N/A | |
| Random Read IOPS | 1,100,000 | N/A | |
| Random Write IOPS | 400,000 | N/A | |
| QoS (99.9999%) | Sub-1ms (6-nines) | N/A | |
| Persistence | Always-on | Lost on stop/terminate |
EBS cost for persistent storage on i4i: gp3 EBS at $0.08/GB/month adds approximately $2,457/month for 30.72 TB of equivalent persistent storage — a cost with no analog on the OpenMetal XL v4 where NVMe is included in the fixed monthly price.
Networking
The OpenMetal XL v4 provides 20Gbps private bandwidth (LACP-bonded, unmetered) and 6Gbps public bandwidth billed on the 95th-percentile model. All east-west traffic between OpenMetal servers on the same VLAN is unmetered — Ceph replication, database replication, Kubernetes pod-to-pod traffic, and inter-service calls cost nothing regardless of volume.
AWS i4i.metal provides up to 75 Gbps network bandwidth, but cross-AZ traffic is billed at $0.01/GB, and public egress is billed at $0.09/GB for the first 10 TB/month in us-east-1. For storage-heavy workloads that replicate data across availability zones, cross-AZ transfer charges can exceed the instance’s compute cost at scale.
Egress pricing: 95th-percentile billing, not per-GB transfer.
OpenMetal measures egress in 5-minute intervals and discards the top 5%. The billing rate is calculated against the 95th-percentile sustained rate, not total bytes transferred. AWS us-east-1: $0.09/GB for the first 10 TB/month. A workload producing 50 TB/month of public egress costs approximately $4,500/month in AWS transfer charges alone. For blockchain nodes, media delivery, data pipeline APIs, and workloads with sustained or unpredictable egress, the per-GB model scales costs non-linearly in ways that 95th-percentile billing does not.
Security and Confidential Computing
OpenMetal XL v4 ships Intel TDX enabled — hardware-isolated Trust Domains with full-memory encryption are available immediately on the physical server. TDX on bare metal means the isolation boundary extends down to the physical CPU: no hypervisor layer, no cloud provider firmware, no shared hardware management controller sits between the Trust Domain and the processor.
AWS offers Nitro Enclaves for application-level confidential computing and supports AMD SEV-SNP on some instance families . AWS Nitro Enclaves provide an isolated execution environment within an EC2 instance but operate within the Nitro hypervisor stack — the isolation model and attestation chain differ from Intel TDX on bare metal.
| Feature | OpenMetal XL v4 | AWS i4i |
|---|---|---|
| Intel TDX | Enabled by default | Not available on i4i |
| Intel SGX | Yes — 128GB max EPC | N/A |
| TME-MK | Enabled | Not applicable |
| Nitro Enclaves | — | Available |
| Physical isolation | Single-tenant hardware | Shared physical host |
| IPMI access | Yes — full OOB | No |
HIPAA and Regulatory Compliance
OpenMetal holds a HIPAA BAA at the organizational level — one BAA covers all workloads running on OpenMetal infrastructure. The Ashburn deployment location is further strengthened by an NTT DATA facility that holds HIPAA as a facility-operator certification (alongside SOC 1/2 Type II, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and NIST 800-53 HIGH). The Los Angeles, Amsterdam, and Singapore locations are operated by Digital Realty; HIPAA compliance at those locations is OpenMetal organizational-level only. AWS also offers a BAA, but HIPAA eligibility is per-service: not all AWS services are covered, and customers must verify each service against the AWS HIPAA-eligible services list.
OpenMetal’s infrastructure-level HIPAA posture (BAA + dedicated physical tenancy + TDX isolation + Ashburn facility-level HIPAA) provides a simpler compliance path for workloads that run exclusively on the XL v4 without consuming additional cloud-managed services.
When Each Platform Wins
When OpenMetal XL v4 Wins
- Sustained 24/7 production workloads — fixed monthly pricing is predictable; on-demand AWS pricing accumulates continuously
- Egress-heavy workloads — blockchain nodes, media APIs, data pipelines; per-GB charges at AWS scale quickly exceed OpenMetal’s 95th-percentile model
- Compliance and isolation requirements — single-tenant hardware, TDX by default, HIPAA BAA without per-service eligibility complexity
- Persistent NVMe required — database primaries, archive nodes, analytics clusters; XL v4 NVMe is always-on and persistent
- BIOS-level control — IPMI access for OS reinstall, firmware updates, and hardware configuration without AWS support tickets
- Predictable budget planning — fixed monthly cost enables 12-month TCO modeling; AWS on-demand pricing fluctuates with usage
When AWS i4i Is the Better Fit
- Scale-to-zero workloads — batch jobs, dev/test environments, and event-driven processing that run for hours, not months
- AWS ecosystem dependency — workloads that require RDS, EMR, SageMaker, Lambda, or other AWS-managed services
- Global edge presence — AWS has 30+ regions; OpenMetal has four (Ashburn, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Singapore)
- Spend below $10k/month — at lower total infrastructure spend, AWS managed ops overhead is proportionally cheaper
- Short-term burst capacity — temporary capacity additions that don’t justify a monthly commitment
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 XL v4 vs your current AWS deployment.
Cost Model and TCO
Cost Model Comparison
| Factor | OpenMetal XL v4 | AWS i4i.metal |
|---|---|---|
| Compute pricing | Fixed monthly | ~$10–$13/hr on-demand |
| NVMe storage | Included (persistent) | Ephemeral (included), EBS extra |
| Persistent 30TB equiv. | Included | ~$2,457/mo EBS gp3 |
| Private network | Included (unmetered VLAN) | Cross-AZ: $0.01/GB |
| Public egress | 95th-percentile | $0.09/GB (first 10 TB) |
| IPMI / remote console | Included | Not available |
| DDoS protection | Included | AWS Shield Standard (free) |
| Commitment discount | Price lock up to 5 years | 1yr/3yr Reserved Instances |
12-Month TCO Estimate (sustained 24/7, 50 TB/month egress)
| Cost Item | OpenMetal XL v4 | AWS i4i.metal |
|---|---|---|
| Compute (12 months) | Contact OpenMetal for quote | ~$87,600–$112,320 |
| Persistent storage | Included | ~$29,484 (30 TB EBS gp3) |
| Egress (50 TB/mo × 12) | Contact OpenMetal for quote | ~$54,000 [at $0.09/GB] |
| Estimated total | Contact for quote | ~$171,000–$196,000 |
All AWS figures can be verified at aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing. OpenMetal pricing available at openmetal.io/bare-metal-pricing.
The cost gap widens with egress volume. Workloads producing 100 TB/month of public egress add approximately $108,000/year in AWS transfer charges — a cost that does not scale linearly with OpenMetal’s 95th-percentile model.
XL v4 Deployment Options
Bare Metal Dedicated Server
Single-tenant server with fixed monthly pricing, full IPMI access, persistent NVMe, and TDX by default. Ramp pricing available for AWS-to-OpenMetal migrations.
→ View pricing: openmetal.io/bare-metal-pricing
Hosted Private Cloud
Three-node OpenStack + Ceph cluster on XL v4 hardware with Day 2 operations included. Proof of Concept clusters available for testing.
→ View pricing: openmetal.io/cloud-deployment-calculator
Both deployment paths: available across OpenMetal’s Tier III data center locations in Ashburn, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, and Singapore. Fixed monthly pricing applies regardless of utilization. No per-hour, per-query, or per-GB billing.
| Location | Region | Certifications | Location Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ashburn, VA | US-East | SOC 1/2 Type II, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, NIST 800-53 HIGH, HIPAA (facility) | Ashburn |
| Los Angeles, CA | US-West | SOC 2, SOC 3, ISO 27001, PCI DSS | Los Angeles |
| Amsterdam | EU-West | SOC 1/2, PCI-DSS, ISO 27001, ISO 50001, ISO 22301 | Amsterdam |
| Singapore | Asia | BCA Green Mark Platinum | Singapore |
Get a XL v4 vs AWS Comparison Quote
Tell us about your infrastructure needs and we’ll provide a custom quote for the XL v4 vs AWS Comparison.
- Bare metal: Single XL v4 server, fixed monthly, persistent NVMe, IPMI included
- Hosted Private Cloud: 3-node OpenStack + Ceph cluster, Day 2 ops included
- Migration support: Ramp pricing for AWS-to-OpenMetal transitions
Ramp pricing available for migrations. All deployments include fixed monthly pricing, 99.96%+ network SLA, and DDoS protection.
Product specifications, pricing, and availability may change due to market conditions and other factors. For the most current information, please contact the OpenMetal team directly. AWS specifications and pricing are sourced from publicly available documentation and may not reflect current rates or configurations.