Dedicated servers in 2025: Why they’re making a strong comeback
Growing reliance on dedicated servers
Dedicated servers are making a significant comeback in 2025. This revival is largely due to increasing workloads in artificial intelligence and stricter compliance regulations. Although cloud computing gained popularity, many businesses are now returning to dedicated infrastructure for enhanced security, control, and performance.
Who is leading this trend?
A recent Liquid Web survey of over 1,000 IT professionals found that 86% currently use dedicated servers. This percentage rises even higher in sectors such as government (93%), IT (91%), and finance (90%). The data clearly shows dedicated servers remain critical in industries with strict compliance standards.
Moving away from the cloud
Notably, 42% of organizations surveyed reported moving workloads back from the public cloud to dedicated servers over the past year. The main driver of this trend is security. More than half stated they would never trust public cloud services with regulated data like healthcare or finance records.
Increased investment in dedicated infrastructure
In 2024, investment in dedicated servers reached new heights. About 34% of organizations significantly increased their dedicated server budgets, reflecting a shift towards prioritizing dedicated environments. Workloads commonly handled by dedicated servers include critical databases, large-scale file storage, web hosting, internal developer platforms, compliance-sensitive applications, and AI tasks.
Why choose dedicated servers?
Organizations prefer dedicated servers for several reasons. The top benefit, reported by 55% of IT professionals, is control and customization. Other advantages include better network performance, superior physical security, predictable costs, and custom hardware tailored to specific workloads.
However, dedicated infrastructure has challenges, too. Some IT professionals reported difficulty scaling infrastructure quickly, and many found it challenging to explain the technical advantages of dedicated servers to non-technical leadership.
The future of dedicated servers
Dedicated servers are here to stay. Over half (53%) of surveyed professionals still consider them essential, and 45% believe their importance will continue growing through 2030.
In 2025, dedicated servers represent not a nostalgic return, but rather a strategic response to modern IT demands for reliability, security, and compliance.
Source: ITPro