Bare metal for high bandwidth applications: powering streaming and gaming

In high-bandwidth applications like streaming and gaming, performance is paramount. And for this very reason, bare metal servers become really important when it comes to delivering the best possible experience.

Users expect seamless experiences—whether watching 4K content, competing online, or broadcasting live to thousands.

To meet these expectations, businesses must rely on infrastructure that supports massive data transfers with minimal latency and high reliability.

Bare metal servers offer the performance needed to handle these demands. With dedicated resources, they provide the stability and speed required for data-intensive tasks.

By the end of this article, you’ll better understand the role of bandwidth in streaming and gaming, the benefits of bare metal infrastructure, and how businesses can optimize their performance.

What is bandwidth?

Bandwidth refers to the maximum amount of data a network can transmit within a given time, usually measured in megabits per second (Mbps) or gigabits per second (Gbps).

For high-bandwidth tasks like streaming and gaming, adequate bandwidth is essential to ensure smooth, uninterrupted experiences.

Think of it as a highway: the wider the road, the more vehicles (data) it can accommodate at once.

Bare metal servers provide the dedicated bandwidth needed to support such high-demand applications.

What is throughput?

While bandwidth represents the theoretical maximum capacity, throughput is the actual amount of data successfully transmitted.

Throughput can be lower than bandwidth due to factors like network congestion, latency, or packet loss.

For instance, a 100 Mbps connection may deliver only 70 Mbps in practice under congested conditions.

Bare metal infrastructure minimizes these issues by offering dedicated, high-capacity connections, ensuring consistent throughput even during peak usage.

What is speed?

Speed refers to the rate at which data is transmitted, often confused with bandwidth.

While bandwidth focuses on the amount of data that can be handled, speed determines how quickly it travels.

For applications like streaming and gaming, both high speed and bandwidth are critical to achieving low latency and high-quality performance.

Bandwidth vs. Throughput

While bandwidth sets the upper limit on data capacity, throughput reveals the network's real-world performance.

Even if a highway has ten lanes (bandwidth), traffic congestion can reduce the number of cars reaching their destination efficiently (throughput).

Bare metal servers help bridge this gap by minimizing congestion and maximizing data delivery.

Bandwidth vs. Speed

Bandwidth is about capacity, whereas speed defines how fast data moves.

Imagine a water hose: a wider hose (higher bandwidth) can carry more water, but if the pressure is low (slow speed), the flow remains sluggish.

Bare metal servers enhance both aspects, preventing slowdowns and ensuring data reaches its destination quickly and efficiently.

What type of connection provides the highest bandwidth?

Different internet connections offer different bandwidth capacities.

Fiber optic connections are the gold standard for high-bandwidth applications like streaming and gaming.

With speeds reaching up to 1 Gbps or more on the consumer-side, fiber combined with bare metal servers provides the ideal infrastructure for handling data-intensive tasks seamlessly.

As for enterprises that work directly on high-bandwidth workloads, they can leverage servers with dual 100 Gbps NIC and a backbone connectivity of up to 400 Gbps.

How is the bandwidth of a network measured?

Bandwidth is measured in bits per second (bps), typically in Mbps or Gbps.

To check your current bandwidth, tools like speedtest.net or fast.com provide real-time insights into your download and upload speeds, offering a clear picture of your network’s performance.

How to increase bandwidth

If your business is struggling with slow network performance, high latency, or bottlenecks that persist despite upgrades, it may be time to look beyond basic optimizations.

Here’s how you can ensure reliable, high-performance connectivity:

Rethink Your Hosting Environment: Shared or virtualized infrastructure can limit bandwidth and create unpredictable performance. Moving to dedicated bare metal servers provides guaranteed network capacity and stability on the server level and premium providers like Latitude.sh even provide carrier-grade network connectivity on each site.

Leverage a High-Bandwidth Data Center: Hosting in a data center with robust peering agreements and low-latency global connectivity can significantly improve speed and reliability.

Eliminate Network Congestion at the Source: Relying on oversubscribed cloud or shared hosting environments can lead to slowdowns. Dedicated infrastructure ensures your bandwidth isn’t competing with other tenants.

Scale for Future Growth: If your business is expanding, consider infrastructure that can scale seamlessly, preventing bandwidth issues before they impact operations.

Rather than just optimizing your existing setup, investing in the right infrastructure—such as bare metal servers with high-bandwidth capabilities—ensures long-term performance and reliability.

Bandwidth limit exceeded

Many ISPs impose data caps or bandwidth limits on their plans. If you exceed these limits, your connection may be throttled, resulting in slower speeds.

Bare metal servers, with their dedicated resources, eliminate these limitations, ensuring consistent and reliable performance.

Dedicated Bandwidth Definition

Dedicated bandwidth refers to a fixed amount of bandwidth reserved exclusively for a single user or organization.

Common in private networks and enterprise solutions, it guarantees stability and optimal performance.

Bare metal servers are ideal for high-bandwidth applications, providing the dedicated bandwidth necessary for seamless operations.

Managing bandwidth with Latitude.sh

At Latitude.sh, we understand that bandwidth plays a crucial role in the performance of high-demand applications.

Our bare metal servers are built to handle not only the high bandwidth needed for seamless streaming, gaming, and data-intensive tasks, but also to minimize latency, ensuring an exceptional experience across all your activities.

To help businesses manage bandwidth effectively, we offer a comprehensive system for tracking and optimizing usage.

Our usage and billing tools give you a clear view of your data transfers, enabling you to monitor traffic and adjust as needed.

Whether it's inbound or outbound traffic, the system provides an insightful breakdown of your network's activity.

Each Latitude.sh server includes 20 TB of free egress traffic every month and unlimited inbound traffic, with additional bandwidth available for purchase in increments of 10 TB.

This bandwidth is pooled across your servers, so even when specific instances do not use their free capacity the ones that need the most can utilize that surplus, providing flexible and scalable options for businesses operating with multiple machines.

To keep track of your usage and avoid unexpected costs, we offer bandwidth alerts that notify administrators when usage exceeds 80% of the allocated quota.

These alerts help ensure your projects stay within budget and allow you to proactively manage resources before hitting any limits.

In case of overages, additional bandwidth is available at competitive rates, with the option to purchase packages that significantly reduce the per-GB cost.

This flexibility allows you to scale your bandwidth needs without compromising on performance or cost-effectiveness.

MUBI & Latitude.sh: Elevating streaming with bare metal servers

MUBI, a platform offering a curated selection of independent and arthouse films, needed to scale its infrastructure to deliver seamless streaming to a growing global audience.

As the platform expanded into new regions, MUBI faced challenges like high latency, rising infrastructure costs, and the need for custom hardware for their CDN.

Latitude.sh provided MUBI with tailored bare metal servers that dramatically reduced latency in key regions. In Brazil, streaming quality improved by 200ms, while in Argentina, latency dropped by 300ms, enhancing user experience.

This not only improved performance but also helped reduce MUBI’s infrastructure costs by 35% in Brazil.

With the flexibility to provide custom hardware for MUBI's unique CDN strategy, Latitude.sh ensured MUBI had the exact setup needed for its expanding needs.

Personalized support and agile solutions allowed MUBI to scale quickly, while maintaining cost efficiency.

Gamers club: enhancing competitive gaming with low-latency servers

Going from streaming to Video Games, Gamers Club, the largest esports platform in Brazil, is committed to providing a premium gaming experience with 128-tickrate servers and a custom anti-cheat system.

As a key player in the Brazilian esports scene, the company recognized that low latency is essential for delivering the best competitive gaming experience.

As the company grew, they faced challenges with scalability and technical support, prompting them to search for a more reliable hosting solution. After evaluating different options, Gamers Club selected Latitude.sh, drawn to its low-latency infrastructure and cost-effective IT solutions.

"During the first hours in Latitude.sh's data center, we saw a great improvement in the latency of our servers," said Yuri Uchiyama, CEO of Gamers Club.

The migration process was smooth and collaborative, with Latitude.sh's team assisting even before the contract was signed.

Felipe Pregnolatto, Director of Engineering, appreciated the proactive support, saying: "While we were negotiating prices, they were already analyzing our environment and planning the best migration approach."

Thanks to the seamless transition to Latitude.sh’s colocation and custom deployments, Gamers Club continues to expand its infrastructure at Latitude.sh’s privately-owned data center in São Paulo.

With ongoing support from Latitude.sh’s technical team, the company remains focused on growing its esports presence while ensuring top-tier performance for its users.

How bandwidth supports enterprises in the digital era

Bandwidth is a cornerstone of operational efficiency, competitiveness, and growth in today’s digital-first business environment. It goes beyond internet access, enabling communication, collaboration, security, and the scalability of digital infrastructure.

As companies increasingly rely on cloud services, data-driven tools, and real-time applications, having the right bandwidth is essential for staying ahead.

For global enterprises, a fast and responsive network ensures seamless access to communication platforms, data repositories, and cloud-based systems, minimizing latency and disruptions.

Insufficient bandwidth can hinder productivity, while high bandwidth facilitates efficient teamwork, large file sharing, and cloud utilization—key to maintaining a competitive edge.

Modern tools like VoIP, video conferencing, and real-time collaboration platforms depend on high bandwidth to function smoothly, enabling remote work, global teamwork, and uninterrupted client interactions.

This reliability boosts productivity and enhances service delivery. The shift to cloud computing has transformed business operations, offering flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency.

Cloud applications like CRM, ERP, and file-sharing tools require high bandwidth for smooth operation, especially when handling large datasets or relying on cloud storage.

With the rise of edge computing, bandwidth is even more critical for real-time data transmission and analysis. Additionally, bandwidth plays a crucial role in securing, encrypting, and backing up sensitive data.

High bandwidth enables faster data transmission to remote servers or cloud platforms, reducing the risk of breaches or loss.

Real-time backups are essential for business continuity, as delays in transferring large data volumes can leave companies vulnerable during system failures.

Bandwidth also allows enterprises to scale their infrastructure efficiently. As demand grows, companies can increase bandwidth to accommodate higher traffic and additional services without costly hardware upgrades.

This scalability is particularly valuable for global enterprises, which can adjust network capacity in specific regions based on demand.

High bandwidth further supports real-time data analysis, enabling businesses to make faster, data-driven decisions, respond to market shifts, and optimize operations.

In a fast-evolving digital landscape, bandwidth is foundational to modern enterprise infrastructure. It supports communication, cloud services, data security, scalability, and real-time decision-making.

As digital tools and cloud adoption continue to grow, businesses must ensure their network capacity meets increasing demands.

By optimizing bandwidth, companies can enhance efficiency, foster collaboration, and maintain a competitive edge.

Avoid undesired surprises and join Latitude.sh for a seamless experience.