Intel and Virtual Iron report industry leading virtualization performance
Overview
Intel recently announced results of its vConsolidate Benchmark performance tests of the new Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor 7300 series which brings the energy-efficient virtualization performance of Intel® Core Architecture to MP server platforms. Intel chose to run its test against Virtual Iron 4.0 and VMware ESX Server – among the first server virtualization solutions to take advantage of improved energy-efficiency, performance and new hardware assist virtualization extensions in the Quad-Core Intel Xeon Processor 7300 series. 
The results show a remarkable improvement in virtualization performance and scalability. The results also show that Virtual Iron delivers significantly better virtualization performance than VMware ESX Server.
Test Results
As shown in Figure One, the test found that the Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor 7300 platform delivered up to 167% virtualization performance improvement on Virtual Iron Version 4.0 software. Running the same test, VMware ESX Server delivered up to 118% virtualization performance improvement. Additionally, the Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor 7300 series-based server utilizing Virtual Iron 4.0 was able to run twice as many Consolidated Stack Units (CSUs) relative to Intel’s previous dual core MP platforms. This unprecedented scalability translates into increased virtualization performance, more VM capacity and higher consolidation ratios improving even further the benefits of virtualization for enterprise data centers.
Virtual Iron 4.0 – Delivering Industry Leading Virtualization Performance
Virtual Iron’s comprehensive virtualization and management software is very complementary to multi-core processing and enables end–users to fully exploit the power of Intel Quad-Core technology. For example, Virtual Iron provides up to 128 gigabytes of memory per physical server as well as the ability to do symmetric multi-processing (SMP) where users can take advantage of up to eight CPUs in a single virtual machine, delivering the industry’s leading performance in a virtualized environment. In addition, Virtual Iron’s powerful virtual infrastructure management capabilities enable users to automatically optimize matching of workloads and available capacity. Virtual Iron was among the first virtualization solution providers to support Intel’s hardware–assisted virtualization technology (Intel VT). This enabled Virtual Iron to support unmodified Windows and Linux guest operating systems while delivering near native performance.
About the Test
Intel’s vConsolidate tested the virtualization performance of Virtual Iron 4.0 software and VMware ESX Server running a Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor X7350 (2.93GHz) compared to Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® processor 7140M. The Benchmark suite consisted of vConsolidate Workload (Beta 2 Release). A unit of work referred as a consolidation stack unit (CSU) and each CSU consists of Five VMMs: Server Side Java, MySQL Database, Commercial Mail, Apache Web Server, Idle. The benchmark suites were identical for Virtual Iron 4. 0 and VMware ESX Server with the exception of the profile. In the case of Virtual Iron 4.0, the Intel vConsolidate test was based on Profile #3 which consisted of a mix of Windows and Linux operating systems and the Apache web server application. For VMware ESX Server, the Intel vConsolidate test was based on Profile #2 which consisted of all Windows operating systems and Microsoft IIS.