Principled Technologies tested the performance of Google Cloud Platform N2 standard VM instances featuring 3rd generation and 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors. They found that the 3rd generation processors completed analytical workloads up to 1.25x faster for small instances, up to 1.23x for medium instances, and up to 1.20x for large instances. This increased processing speed when using the latest generation processors could allow businesses to complete more data analysis in the same time window or reduce the time required to gain insights from data.

1. Large VM
instances
Complete data analysis
up to 1.20x as fast
Medium VM
instances
Complete data analysis
up to 1.23x as fast
Complete online analytics processing
work faster with Google Cloud
Platform N2 standard VM instances
featuring 3rd
Generation Intel Xeon
Scalable Processors
Compared to N2 standard instances with 2nd
Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors
These days, many sound business decisions rely on a conversation
between powerful analytics systems and executives who consider
the data those systems report. While we can’t help your staff with
their deliberations, we can point the way to a cloud solution capable
of speeding up data analysis so key decision-makers can gain
insights sooner.
At Principled Technologies, we assessed the data warehouse analytical
performance of two sets of Google Cloud Platform VM instances
running Microsoft SQL Server 2019 databases: N2 standard VM
instances featuring 3rd
Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors
and N2 standard VM instances featuring 2nd
Generation Intel Xeon
Scalable processors. In our tests, the VM instances with 3rd
Gen Intel
Xeon Scalable processors completed the workload faster than the
VM instances with 2nd
Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors (up to 1.25
times as fast when processing a single data stream).
This speed could enable your business to process more analytics
work in the same analysis window you currently use, or to speed the
time to insights.
Small VM
instances
Complete data analysis
up to 1.25x as fast
Complete online analytics processing work faster with Google Cloud Platform N2
standard VM instances featuring 3rd
Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors
January 2022
A Principled Technologies report: Hands-on testing. Real-world results.

2. How we tested
VM instances and sizing
We tested two types of N2 standard VM instances for Google Cloud Platform: those featuring 3rd
Generation
Intel Xeon Scalable processors (Ice Lake, or ICX), and those featuring 2nd
Generation Intel Xeon Scalable
processors (Cascade Lake, or CLX).
Note that Google Cloud Platform does not reveal the specific model number for the processors supporting
each VM instance. However, N2 standard instances are available only with 3rd
and 2nd
Gen Intel Xeon Scalable
processors. By matching processor speed stats to publicly available spec sheets for each generation of
Intel Xeon Scalable processor, we were able to differentiate the processor supporting each instance with a
reasonable level of certainty. We ensured that the processor speed for each VM instance remained consistent
from test to test.
We compared the performance of the VM instances across three sizes: small, medium, and large. Figure 1
illustrates key configuration information for these VM instance sizes. For additional configuration information, see
the science behind this report.
Figure 1: Information on the three VM instance sizes we tested. We ran each VM instance in the
us‑central1-a region. Source: Principled Technologies.
The workload
To test each VM instance, we used the TPROC-H workload from the HammerDB benchmark suite. This is an
online analytics processing (OLAP) workload that measures the time required for VM instances to analyze streams
of database queries (in TPROC-H, one stream comprises 22 serialized database queries).
The HammerDB developers derived TPROC-H from the TPC-H specification; however, because the workload is
not a full implementation of the TPC-H standard, the results in this paper are not directly comparable to officially
published TPC-H results.
8 vCPUs 16 vCPUs 64 vCPUs
32 GB memory 64 GB memory 256 GB memory
Small VM
instances
Medium VM
instances
Large VM
instances
January 2022 | 2
Complete online analytics processing work faster with Google Cloud Platform N2
standard VM instances featuring 3rd
Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors

3. Our results
Figures 2 through 4 illustrate the results of our testing. In each test case, the N2 standard VM instance with
3rd
Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors completed the analytics workload faster than the VM instances
that featured 2nd
Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors. For small VM instances, the N2 standard instance
with 3rd
Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor was up to 1.25 times as fast as the N2 standard instance with
2nd
Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors. For medium instances, this advantage was up to 1.23x; for large
instances, up to 1.20x.
Figure 2: Comparison of the speed at which each of the n2-standard-8 VM instances completed the TPROC-H analytics
workload, relative to the completion time of the VM instance with 2nd
Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors.
Source: Principled Technologies.
Small VM instance comparison: speed of completion
n2-standard-8 (ICX) n2-standard-8 (CLX)
1.25
1
OLAP workload on Microsoft SQL Server 2019 | Higher is better | Normalized results
Small VM
instances
1 stream
2 streams
3 streams
1
1
1.15
1.15
OLAP workload on Microsoft SQL Server 2019 | Higher is better | Normalized results
Medium VM instance comparison: speed of completion
Medium VM
instances 1.17
1
1 stream
2 streams
3 streams
1
1
1.18
1.18
n2-standard-16 (ICX) n2-standard-16 (CLX)
1
1.23
4 streams
Figure 3: Comparison of the speed at which each of the n2-standard-16 VM instances completed the TPROC-H analytics
workload, relative to the completion time of the VM instance with 2nd
Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors.
Source: Principled Technologies.
January 2022 | 3
Complete online analytics processing work faster with Google Cloud Platform N2
standard VM instances featuring 3rd
Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors

4. OLAP workload on Microsoft SQL Server 2019 | Higher is better | Normalized results
Large VM instance comparison: speed of completion
Large VM
instances
1.16
1
1 stream
2 streams
3 streams
1
1
1.13
1.11
n2-standard-64 (ICX) n2-standard-64 (CLX)
1
1.18
4 streams
5 streams
1
1.20
Figure 4: Comparison of the speed at which each of the n2-standard-64 VM instances completed the TPROC-H
analytics workload, relative to the completion time of the VM instance with 2nd
Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors.
Source: Principled Technologies.
How our results translate to real-world
use cases
It can be difficult to understand how isolated results can
relate to your real-world business, so here’s a hypothetical
scenario to help.
Each night, a company has a four-hour window in which to
analyze data on a 100GB database. The analysis must complete
before sunrise, as executives and other leaders rely on the
data from this analysis to help focus their business growth and
improvement efforts.
Based on the results of our single-stream TPROC-H tests, the
large N2 standard VM instance that used 3rd
Gen Intel Xeon
Scalable processors would enable this company to complete
576 query streams within their nightly analysis window.
However, the large N2 standard VM instance with 2nd
Gen Intel
Xeon Scalable processors would allow time for only 480 query
streams—a difference of 20 percent.
Now, let’s say that each night, this company needs only
complete 480 query streams total. The large N2 standard VM
instance with 2nd
Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors would
require four hours. But with the N2 standard VM instance with
3rd
Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, this company would
be able to complete this task in just 3.3 hours, shrinking their
analysis window by forty minutes each night.
January 2022 | 4
Complete online analytics processing work faster with Google Cloud Platform N2
standard VM instances featuring 3rd
Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors

5. Conclusion
In our Google Cloud Platform tests, N2 standard series VM instances featuring 3rd
Generation
Intel Xeon Scalable processors completed an online analytics workload on a Microsoft SQL
Server 2019 database up to 1.25 times as fast as N2 standard series VM instances with 2nd
Gen
Intel Xeon Scalable processors. If your organization relies on regular database analytics work,
choosing cloud VM instances capable of quickly completing that work can help shorten the time
from analysis to insight, and thereby quicken the pace of innovation.
Complete data
analysis
up to 1.25x as fast
Complete data
analysis
up to 1.23x as fast
Complete data
analysis
up to 1.20x as fast
Small VM
instances
Medium VM
instances
Large VM
instances
Principled Technologies is a registered trademark of Principled Technologies, Inc.
All other product names are the trademarks of their respective owners.
For additional information, review the science behind this report.
Principled
Technologies®
Facts matter.®
Principled
Technologies®
Facts matter.®
This project was commissioned by Intel.
Read the science behind this report at https://facts.pt/9LqyCyO
January 2022 | 5
Complete online analytics processing work faster with Google Cloud Platform N2
standard VM instances featuring 3rd
Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors