Even as cloud computing continues to dominate in modern tech infrastructure, new research has revealed that many IT professionals are quietly doubling down on dedicated servers, proving that a physical presence remains a cornerstone of enterprise architecture.

Web hosting firm Liquid Web’s 2025 Dedicated Server Study found that 86% of organisations currently use dedicated servers, a single, physical computer exclusively used by just one client, with information technology (91%) and finance (90%) firms being the most likely to do so. 

Despite money pouring into cloud and hybrid cloud solutions, Liquid Web found that more than half (53%) of the one thousand IT professionals polled still view dedicated servers as essential pieces of kit, with 45% expecting their role to grow over the next five years, with more than a third of organisations ramping up spending on dedicated servers in 2024.

Over the last twelve months, 42% of IT pros admitted to migrating workloads away from public cloud and back to dedicated servers, and are using them for core tasks like holding databases (71%), large-scale file storage (51%), dev environments (34%), and AI training (23%).

But with cloud heralded as the next step in digital transformation, why are firms choosing to take what looks to be a backwards step? 

For most IT pros, the ability to maintain full control and customisation is the number one reason for using a dedicated server (55%), followed by performance issues (48%), compliance or data concerns (45%), and cost predictability (38%).

Interestingly, it seems like the physical nature of dedicated servers is their biggest attraction. A quarter of IT professionals said that physical security was among the most valuable features of these servers, while one in five (20%) said that maintaining bare metal access and root control was critical to them.

However, 18% said they were using dedicated servers to avoid vendor lock-in, a response to the narrowing cloud market dominated by a few tech giants like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

Cloud tech is disappointing in other ways, too, with the study finding that nearly half (47%) of IT pros have encountered unexpected cloud costs, like data egress or scaling fees, which for the majority (39%) amount to anywhere between $5,000 – $25,000 (£3,694 – £18,470), although one in ten firms said these costs had spiralled to a staggering $100,000 (£73,883) or more.

Added to that, Liquid Web discovered that 32% believe their organisation wastes cloud spending on unused features or capacity, suggesting a lack of control across virtual environments can translate into budgetary strains.

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But while dedicated servers can solve some of these problems, communicating their benefits is more difficult. 

A third (31%) of IT staff said that they aren’t confident in explaining their infrastructure choices to nontechnical leadership, while 70% believe that executive leadership underestimates the role dedicated servers should play in a modern tech stack.

“Dedicated servers provide the control, performance, and security that IT leaders need to build future-proof architectures,” said Ryan MacDonald, CTO at Liquid Web.

“IT professionals migrating workloads back from public cloud to dedicated environments underscores a deliberate strategy to reclaim control, customisation, and predictable costs.

“To fully realise these benefits, they should choose a hosting partner with the technical expertise and innovation roadmap to meet evolving requirements.”