What it does
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC provides public multi-tenant and dedicated single-tenant virtual machines. The creation guide configures a location and resource group, selects an OS image and vCPU/RAM profile, and then sets SSH keys, boot and data volumes, VPC networking, and optional user data. The docs list console, CLI, API, and Terraform as provisioning routes.
This product combines conventional VM selection with IBM VPC network and tenancy options. Its console flow exposes the decisions that matter for a deployment:region and zone, image, compute profile, SSH access, boot storage, and network interfaces:while API, CLI, and Terraform paths support automation. The range of profile families is useful for specialized workloads, but buyers need to choose storage, networking, and profile options deliberately rather than assume one generic VM price covers the full stack.
Strengths
- Create virtual servers through the console, CLI, API, or Terraform.
- Choose among balanced, compute, memory, storage-optimized, GPU, and other profiles, with public multi-tenant or dedicated single-tenant deployment options.
- The provisioning workflow supports SSH keys, user data, custom images, snapshots, and configurable VPC networking.
Watch out for
- Provisioning requires selecting compatible image, profile, storage, and network settings for the intended workload.
- The created instance may need a floating IP address before it can be reached from outside its VPC.
Best for
- Teams that want virtual servers integrated with IBM Cloud VPC networking and security controls.
- Workloads that need a specific compute profile, single-tenant placement, or infrastructure-as-code provisioning.
Sources
- IBM Cloud Virtual Server for VPC (Oct 25, 2026)
- Creating virtual server instances | IBM Cloud Docs (Oct 25, 2026)