The new PowerEdge C6620 delivered better performance—both higher throughput and lower latency—than a previous-generation PowerEdge C6520 with PERC 11
Conclusion
The vast amounts of unstructured data that people and organizations generate daily have the potential to bring incredible value to companies that can utilize it quickly and correctly. Buried in the data are insights about consumer preferences, product performance, environmental trends, and more—but to access those insights at the speed of business, you need high-performing NoSQL databases. Aging servers may be holding you back from the full value of your data.
We found that the new Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Broadcom-based PERC 12 RAID controller can speed read-intensive Apache Cassandra database workloads compared to an older server solution. Faster read and update latencies and higher throughput, as we saw the PowerEdge C6620 deliver, can speed the retrieval, processing, and analysis of your unstructured data, enabling you to more effectively extract its value. To more fully utilize your data to inform your everyday business operations, consider the Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Broadcom-based PERC 12 RAID controller.
Apache Cassandra performance advantages of the new Dell PowerEdge C6620 with ...Principled Technologies
The PowerEdge C6620 with PERC 12 delivered lower latency and higher throughput than an HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9 server with an HPE Smart Array P440ar controller
Conclusion
Data proliferation today is rapid, and its growth shows no signs of stopping. For businesses that can take advantage of that data, there is tremendous potential value. One recent McKinsey study notes that “companies that are using data-driven B2B sales-growth engines report above-market growth and EBITDA increases in the range of 15 to 25 percent.” With data flooding in so quickly and in so many different forms, however, companies need high-performing big data solutions to have a chance at utilizing that data effectively.
We tested the performance of two platforms with a read-intensive Apache Cassandra database system bigdata workload to assess which might be better suited to speedily deliver the insights decision makers need. Compared to an older HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9 server with an HPE Smart Array P440ar controller, the new Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Broadcom-based PERC 12 RAID controller delivered faster read and update latencies and more than twice the throughput. This improvement in performance can help you glean more value from your unstructured data more quickly. If you’re watching your stores of unstructured data grow but are still leaning on older servers for your critical Cassandra workloads, it may be time for an upgrade.
Analyze data from Cassandra databases more quickly: Select Dell PowerEdge C66...Principled Technologies
This new Dell PERC 12 solution delivered stronger Apache Cassandra distributed database performance than a legacy solution.
When speedy, in-depth analysis is crucial in a NoSQL environment, relying on legacy hardware can hurt your company. We found that a Dell PowerEdge C6620 server with a Dell PERC 12 RAID controller handled more OPS for a Cassandra data analysis workload than a previous-generation Dell PowerEdge C6520 server with a
PERC 11 RAID controller. This superior performance could help business units in your organization reap in-depth actionable intelligence from unstructured data more quickly.
Dell PowerEdge C6620 server with Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC 12) ana...Principled Technologies
Dell PowerEdge C6620 server with Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC 12) analyzed Cassandra database data more quickly than an HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9 server with an HPE Smart Array P440ar controller
Detailed, up-to-the-moment data analysis is becoming increasingly important for those who make business decisions. In our hands-on tests, a Dell PowerEdge C6620 server with a Dell PERC 12 RAID controller handled more operations per second for data analysis Cassandra workloads than an HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9
server with an HPE Smart Array P440ar controller. By selecting the Dell solution, you could give the decisionmakers in your organization earlier access to in-depth, actionable intelligence, by finding anomalies quickly in unstructured data.
Data proliferation and machine learning: The case for upgrading your servers ...Principled Technologies
Principled Technologies examined the performance improvements and cost savings associated with upgrading to the 16th Generation Dell PowerEdge R7625 for machine learning algorithms
Conclusion
As data proliferates and the sizes of databases grow, the potential to unlock valuable insights from them becomes increasingly dependent on fast architectures that can handle compute-intensive machine learning workloads such as k-means clustering and Bayesian inference. By upgrading to the latest servers, organizations can scale their processing power to meet the growing demands of their databases.
Larger databases and more powerful algorithms have the potential to give organizations a competitive edge. Faster servers can improve the accuracy of data-driven decisions by allowing organizations to use more complex algorithms and update ML models more frequently. To consider just two examples, improved performance could allow an e-commerce company to make better recommendations to customers and a financial services company to assess risks more accurately.
When we compared the machine learning performance of a 16G Dell PowerEdge R7625 server powered by 4th Gen AMD EPYC 64-core processors with Broadcom NICs and PERC 11 storage controllers to a previous-generation PowerEdge server, we found performance enhancements in terms of throughput and speed, whether running k-means clustering or Bayesian workloads. These findings suggest that organizations that rely on machine learning algorithms might gain performance advantages by upgrading to the latest generation of these Dell servers.
Analyze data from Cassandra databases more quickly: Select Dell PowerEdge C66...Principled Technologies
When speedy, in-depth analysis is crucial in a NoSQL environment, relying on legacy hardware can hurt your company. We found that a Dell PowerEdge C6620 server with a Dell PERC 12 RAID controller handled more OPS for a Cassandra data analysis workload than a previous-generation Dell PowerEdge C6520 server with a PERC 11 RAID controller. This superior performance could help business units in your organization reap in-depth actionable intelligence from unstructured data more quickly.
The PowerEdge R750 solution boosted performance compared to a previous-generation PowerEdge R740 with PERC 10
Conclusion
Companies increasingly turn to big data applications to solve business problems such as understanding customer habits and behavior, maintaining electronic health records, and detecting fraud. In a 2022 survey of executives, 97.0 percent had invested in big data initiatives, and 73.7 percent said their organizations had appointed a Chief Data Officer (CDO), up from 12 percent in 2012.
With so much data at play, storage becomes an essential consideration for companies as they select hardware platforms to run their vital workloads. Two primary requirements for storage are fast performance and redundancy. Companies seek storage that can quickly put actionable insights into the hands of decision makers. At the same time, it is a fact of life that storage media occasionally fails, and no company wants to risk the potentially very large expense of losing vital business data.
In our testing with a disk-intensive TeraSort big data workload, we found that a current-generation Dell PowerEdge R750 server with a Broadcom-based Dell PERC 11 RAID controller with NVMe SSDs outperformed a previous-generation PowerEdge R740 server with a Dell PERC 10 RAID controller. The newer PowerEdge R750 solution completed the workload in 13.9 percent less time and with 16.3 percent better throughput, indicating that it could speed the delivery of insights to decision makers. With its PERC 11 RAID controller, it also offers RAID support for today’s speedy NVMe SSDs. Data-driven organizations must weigh the cost savings of putting off purchases of newer servers against the benefits of investing in those same newer, more powerful servers with RAID support for NVMe drives. Our testing shows that with the Dell PowerEdge R750 server with a Broadcom technology-based Dell PERC 11 RAID controller, buyers need not choose between redundancy and high performance.
Boosting performance with the Dell Acceleration Appliance for DatabasesPrincipled Technologies
If your business is expanding and you need to support more users accessing your databases, it’s time to act. Upgrading your database infrastructure with a flash storage-based solution is a smart way to improve performance without adding more servers or taking up very much rack space, which comes at a premium. The Dell Acceleration Appliance for Databases addresses this by providing strong performance when combined with your existing infrastructure or on its own.
We found that adding a highly available DAAD solution to our database application provided up to 3.01 times the Oracle Database 12c performance, which can make a big difference to your bottom line. Additionally, the DAAD delivered 3.14 times the database performance when replacing traditional storage completely, which could enable your infrastructure to keep up with your growing business’ needs.
Move your private cloud to Dell EMC PowerEdge C6420 server nodes and boost Ap...Principled Technologies
Powered by 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Dell EMC PowerEdge C6420 server nodes handled 2X the operations per second of older HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9 nodes
Apache Cassandra performance advantages of the new Dell PowerEdge C6620 with ...Principled Technologies
The PowerEdge C6620 with PERC 12 delivered lower latency and higher throughput than an HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9 server with an HPE Smart Array P440ar controller
Conclusion
Data proliferation today is rapid, and its growth shows no signs of stopping. For businesses that can take advantage of that data, there is tremendous potential value. One recent McKinsey study notes that “companies that are using data-driven B2B sales-growth engines report above-market growth and EBITDA increases in the range of 15 to 25 percent.” With data flooding in so quickly and in so many different forms, however, companies need high-performing big data solutions to have a chance at utilizing that data effectively.
We tested the performance of two platforms with a read-intensive Apache Cassandra database system bigdata workload to assess which might be better suited to speedily deliver the insights decision makers need. Compared to an older HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9 server with an HPE Smart Array P440ar controller, the new Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Broadcom-based PERC 12 RAID controller delivered faster read and update latencies and more than twice the throughput. This improvement in performance can help you glean more value from your unstructured data more quickly. If you’re watching your stores of unstructured data grow but are still leaning on older servers for your critical Cassandra workloads, it may be time for an upgrade.
Analyze data from Cassandra databases more quickly: Select Dell PowerEdge C66...Principled Technologies
This new Dell PERC 12 solution delivered stronger Apache Cassandra distributed database performance than a legacy solution.
When speedy, in-depth analysis is crucial in a NoSQL environment, relying on legacy hardware can hurt your company. We found that a Dell PowerEdge C6620 server with a Dell PERC 12 RAID controller handled more OPS for a Cassandra data analysis workload than a previous-generation Dell PowerEdge C6520 server with a
PERC 11 RAID controller. This superior performance could help business units in your organization reap in-depth actionable intelligence from unstructured data more quickly.
Dell PowerEdge C6620 server with Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC 12) ana...Principled Technologies
Dell PowerEdge C6620 server with Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC 12) analyzed Cassandra database data more quickly than an HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9 server with an HPE Smart Array P440ar controller
Detailed, up-to-the-moment data analysis is becoming increasingly important for those who make business decisions. In our hands-on tests, a Dell PowerEdge C6620 server with a Dell PERC 12 RAID controller handled more operations per second for data analysis Cassandra workloads than an HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9
server with an HPE Smart Array P440ar controller. By selecting the Dell solution, you could give the decisionmakers in your organization earlier access to in-depth, actionable intelligence, by finding anomalies quickly in unstructured data.
Data proliferation and machine learning: The case for upgrading your servers ...Principled Technologies
Principled Technologies examined the performance improvements and cost savings associated with upgrading to the 16th Generation Dell PowerEdge R7625 for machine learning algorithms
Conclusion
As data proliferates and the sizes of databases grow, the potential to unlock valuable insights from them becomes increasingly dependent on fast architectures that can handle compute-intensive machine learning workloads such as k-means clustering and Bayesian inference. By upgrading to the latest servers, organizations can scale their processing power to meet the growing demands of their databases.
Larger databases and more powerful algorithms have the potential to give organizations a competitive edge. Faster servers can improve the accuracy of data-driven decisions by allowing organizations to use more complex algorithms and update ML models more frequently. To consider just two examples, improved performance could allow an e-commerce company to make better recommendations to customers and a financial services company to assess risks more accurately.
When we compared the machine learning performance of a 16G Dell PowerEdge R7625 server powered by 4th Gen AMD EPYC 64-core processors with Broadcom NICs and PERC 11 storage controllers to a previous-generation PowerEdge server, we found performance enhancements in terms of throughput and speed, whether running k-means clustering or Bayesian workloads. These findings suggest that organizations that rely on machine learning algorithms might gain performance advantages by upgrading to the latest generation of these Dell servers.
Analyze data from Cassandra databases more quickly: Select Dell PowerEdge C66...Principled Technologies
When speedy, in-depth analysis is crucial in a NoSQL environment, relying on legacy hardware can hurt your company. We found that a Dell PowerEdge C6620 server with a Dell PERC 12 RAID controller handled more OPS for a Cassandra data analysis workload than a previous-generation Dell PowerEdge C6520 server with a PERC 11 RAID controller. This superior performance could help business units in your organization reap in-depth actionable intelligence from unstructured data more quickly.
The PowerEdge R750 solution boosted performance compared to a previous-generation PowerEdge R740 with PERC 10
Conclusion
Companies increasingly turn to big data applications to solve business problems such as understanding customer habits and behavior, maintaining electronic health records, and detecting fraud. In a 2022 survey of executives, 97.0 percent had invested in big data initiatives, and 73.7 percent said their organizations had appointed a Chief Data Officer (CDO), up from 12 percent in 2012.
With so much data at play, storage becomes an essential consideration for companies as they select hardware platforms to run their vital workloads. Two primary requirements for storage are fast performance and redundancy. Companies seek storage that can quickly put actionable insights into the hands of decision makers. At the same time, it is a fact of life that storage media occasionally fails, and no company wants to risk the potentially very large expense of losing vital business data.
In our testing with a disk-intensive TeraSort big data workload, we found that a current-generation Dell PowerEdge R750 server with a Broadcom-based Dell PERC 11 RAID controller with NVMe SSDs outperformed a previous-generation PowerEdge R740 server with a Dell PERC 10 RAID controller. The newer PowerEdge R750 solution completed the workload in 13.9 percent less time and with 16.3 percent better throughput, indicating that it could speed the delivery of insights to decision makers. With its PERC 11 RAID controller, it also offers RAID support for today’s speedy NVMe SSDs. Data-driven organizations must weigh the cost savings of putting off purchases of newer servers against the benefits of investing in those same newer, more powerful servers with RAID support for NVMe drives. Our testing shows that with the Dell PowerEdge R750 server with a Broadcom technology-based Dell PERC 11 RAID controller, buyers need not choose between redundancy and high performance.
Boosting performance with the Dell Acceleration Appliance for DatabasesPrincipled Technologies
If your business is expanding and you need to support more users accessing your databases, it’s time to act. Upgrading your database infrastructure with a flash storage-based solution is a smart way to improve performance without adding more servers or taking up very much rack space, which comes at a premium. The Dell Acceleration Appliance for Databases addresses this by providing strong performance when combined with your existing infrastructure or on its own.
We found that adding a highly available DAAD solution to our database application provided up to 3.01 times the Oracle Database 12c performance, which can make a big difference to your bottom line. Additionally, the DAAD delivered 3.14 times the database performance when replacing traditional storage completely, which could enable your infrastructure to keep up with your growing business’ needs.
Move your private cloud to Dell EMC PowerEdge C6420 server nodes and boost Ap...Principled Technologies
Powered by 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Dell EMC PowerEdge C6420 server nodes handled 2X the operations per second of older HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9 nodes
Get insight from document-based distributed MongoDB databases sooner and have...Principled Technologies
With additional drive bays and 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Dell EMC PowerEdge R640 servers handled more Yahoo Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB) operations per second than previous-generation servers and handled them more efficiently
Dell PowerEdge C6620 server with Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC 12) ana...Principled Technologies
Detailed, up-to-the-moment data analysis is becoming increasingly important for those who make business decisions. In our hands-on tests, a Dell PowerEdge C6620 server with a Dell PERC 12 RAID controller handled more operations per second for data analysis Cassandra workloads than an HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9
server with an HPE Smart Array P440ar controller. By selecting the Dell solution, you could give the decisionmakers in your organization earlier access to in-depth, actionable intelligence, by finding anomalies quickly in
unstructured data.
Handle more Oracle transactions and support more VMs with the Dell PowerEdge ...Principled Technologies
Compared to the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 with Smart Array P440ar Controller
If your organization runs Oracle Database for OLTP workloads, moving to a Dell PowerEdge R7625 with PERC 12 could be a choice that improves your overall performance and allows you to consolidate your data center hardware. In our tests, the PowerEdge R7625 with PERC 12 delivered 6.3 times the total NOPM and supported 2.5 times the number of VMs the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server did. By harnessing the power of the latest in RAID controller technology, the PowerEdge R7625 can provide an upgraded Oracle Database experience compared to the competitor we tested.
Dell PowerEdge R750 servers: Stronger Apache Hadoop big data performance with high availability
Conclusion
Organizations of all sizes have incorporated big data applications into their workflows, and rely on them daily. The enormous volume of information that companies now contend with drives the need for effective storage solutions. These solutions must support strong performance by delivering speedy access to data, which helps companies make critical business decisions in a timely manner. In addition, effective storage solutions protect data and keep it available even if individual storage components stop working.
We ran a disk-intensive TeraSort big data workload on two server-and-storage solutions. Both solutions used RAID for redundancy, but only one of them used high-speed NVMe storage media. The current-generation Dell PowerEdge R750 server with a Dell PERC 11 RAID controller and NVMe storage outperformed the previous-generation HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server with an HPE Smart Array P440ar Controller. The Dell solution completed a disk-intensive TeraSort workload in 27 percent less time and achieved a 36 percent greater throughput rate. These results show that by selecting the Dell PowerEdge R750 server with a Dell PERC 11 RAID controller, companies no longer need to choose between the data protection that comes with true redundant hardware RAID solutions and the performance benefits of the fastest NVMe drives. The Dell-Broadcom solution lets companies have both.
Dell PowerEdge R920 running Oracle Database: Benefits of upgrading with NVMe ...Principled Technologies
Strong server performance is essential to companies running Oracle Database. The new Dell PowerEdge R920 provides strong performance in its base configuration with 24 SAS hard disks, but this performance gets an enormous boost when running the configuration containing NVMe Express Flash PCIe SSDs. In our testing, the upgraded configuration of the Dell PowerEdge R920 delivered 14.9 times the database performance of the base configuration. In addition, in testing the raw I/O throughput of the NVMe Express Flash PCIe SSDs, we saw as much as 192.8 times the IOPS as compared to the base configuration. Given that the storage subsystem is critical in servers and specifically database applications, the performance improvements offered by NVMe Express Flash PCIe SSDs can lead to great service improvements for your customers, making this upgrade a very wise investment.
Dell PowerEdge R930 with Oracle: The benefits of upgrading to PCIe storage us...Principled Technologies
Strong server performance is essential to companies running Oracle Database. The new Dell PowerEdge R930 provided strong performance with 22 SAS HDDs, but this performance improved when we replaced all of the drives with SAS solid-state drives. It improved further when we used a mix of HDDs and SDDs along with SanDisk DAS Cache. We saw the greatest performance boost when we used eight PCIe SSDs with SanDisk DAS Cache. The upgraded configuration of the Dell PowerEdge R930 with PCIe SSDs and SanDisk DAS Cache delivered 11.1 times the database performance of the all-HDD configuration. This makes the new Dell PowerEdge R930 a powerful platform with scalable storage options that can potentially translate into significant service improvements for your business and your customers, which helps in maximizing ROI.
Get better Oracle Database performance when you upgrade to the Dell PowerEdge...Principled Technologies
Compared to the previous-gen Dell PowerEdge R7525 with PERC 11
Even if your Oracle Database servers are running well, you could improve performance by switching out previous-generation hardware for the latest technology. Our testing found that this was true for various OLTP workload types, including a CPU-targeted database workload, an IO-targeted workload, and a Balanced CPU/IO workload, with the Dell PowerEdge R7625 with PERC 12 offering as much as 2.39 times the Oracle Database performance that the previous-gen PowerEdge R7525 with PERC 11 did. In addition, the PowerEdge R7625 with PERC 12 had lower %iowait across the board, again showing that upgrading to the latest-generation server can improve database performance for various workload profiles. By moving to a new PowerEdge R7625, your
organization can support more customers and realize better system efficiency, which ultimately provides the opportunity to consolidate onto fewer systems to reduce operating costs.
By upgrading from the legacy solution we tested to the new Intel processor-based Dell and VMware solution, you could do 18 times the work in the same amount of space. Imagine what that performance could mean to your business: Consolidate workloads from across your company, lower your power and cooling bills, and limit datacenter expansion in the future, all while maintaining a consistent user experience—the list of potential benefits is huge.
Try running DPACK, which can help you identify bottlenecks in your environment and inform you about your current performance needs. Then consider how the consolidation ratio we proved could be helpful for your company. The Intel processor-powered Dell PowerEdge R730 solution with VMware vSphere and Dell Storage SC4020, also powered by Intel, could be the right destination for your upgrade journey.
Maximizing Oracle Database performance with Intel SSD DC P3600 Series NVMe SS...Principled Technologies
If your organization runs critical, high-demand databases in environments such as Oracle Database, strong performance is not an option: it’s a must-have. Additionally, getting that necessary strong performance out of a single server can be essential for running a space and cost-efficient datacenter. In the Principled Technologies labs, we found that the Dell PowerEdge R930 offered strong performance for such transactional databases when configured with SATA SSDs. When we upgraded the servers to Intel SSD DC P3600 Series NVMe SSDs, performance doubled, increasing by 2.17 times, or 117 percent. If your datacenter needs a new powerhouse server, purchasing your Dell PowerEdge R930 with Intel NVMe SSDs for a cost increase of only 18 percent can double the performance you get from each server. This increases what your infrastructure can do within the same amount of space and lets you ultimately save money that would otherwise be spent purchasing additional servers and software.
Improve performance and gain room to grow by easily migrating to a modern Ope...Principled Technologies
We deployed this modern environment, then migrated database VMs from legacy servers and saw performance improvements that support consolidation
Conclusion
If your organization’s transactional databases are running on gear that is several years old, you have much to gain by upgrading to modern servers with new processors and networking components and an OpenShift environment. In our testing, a modern OpenShift environment with a cluster of three Dell PowerEdge R7615 servers with 4th Generation AMD EPYC processors and high-speed 100Gb Broadcom NICs outperformed a legacy environment with MySQL VMs running on a cluster of three Dell PowerEdge R7515 servers with 3rd Generation AMD EPYC processors and 25Gb Broadcom NICs. We also easily migrated a VM from the legacy environment to the modern environment, with only a few steps required to set up and less than ten minutes of hands-on time. The performance advantage of the modern servers would allow a company to reduce the number of servers necessary to perform a given amount of database work, thus lowering operational expenditures such as power and cooling and IT staff time for maintenance. The high-speed 100Gb Broadcom NICs in this solution also give companies better network performance and networking capacity to grow as they embrace emerging technologies such as AI that put great demands on networks.
As our tests show, investing in the powerful new Dell PowerEdge R920 running Oracle Database 12c pluggable databases achieves cost savings without compromising performance. In our testing, a single Dell PowerEdge R920 was able to do nine times the work of a single HP ProLiant DL385 G6 server while the power and cooling costs dropped by 64 percent when compared to the nine servers it could replace. At 17 percent less, three-year software licensing savings were so dramatic that they paid back the new server costs in just six months, and over three years could save just under $300,000.
Run more data analysis more quickly using Dell PowerEdge R760 serversPrincipled Technologies
The latest-generation Dell PowerEdge R760 server, powered by 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, performed more data analysis in less time than either older server we tested
Data analytics can play a critical role in understanding your organization. With timely data analysis, decision‑makers can respond to trends or activity quickly and with the support of data-driven insight. New Dell PowerEdge R760 servers, either in addition to or in place of aging servers, can boost data warehouse workload performance to deliver insights sooner. In our testing, a latest-generation Dell PowerEdge R760 server powered by 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors completed 20 data analytics workloads in up to 41 percent less time than older Dell PowerEdge R750 and PowerEdge R740xd servers.
Move your private cloud to Dell EMC PowerEdge C6420 server nodes and boost Ap...Principled Technologies
Powered by 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Dell EMC PowerEdge C6420 server nodes handled 2X the operations per second of older HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9 nodes
Realize 2.1X the performance with 20% less power with AMD EPYC processor-back...Principled Technologies
Three AMD EPYC processor-based two-processor solutions outshined comparable Intel Xeon Scalable processor-based solutions by handling more Redis workload transactions and requests while consuming less power
Conclusion
Performance and energy efficiency are significant factors in processor selection for servers running data-intensive workloads, such as Redis. We compared the Redis performance and energy consumption of a server cluster in three AMD EPYC two-processor configurations against that of a server cluster in two Intel Xeon Scalable two-processor configurations. In each of our three test scenarios, the server cluster backed by AMD EPYC processors outperformed the server cluster backed by Intel Xeon Scalable processors. In addition, one of the AMD EPYC processor-based clusters consumed 20 percent less power than its Intel Xeon Scalable processor-based counterpart. Combining these measurements gave us power efficiency metrics that demonstrate how valuable AMD EPYC processor-based servers could be—you could see better performance per watt with these AMD EPYC processor-based server clusters and potentially get more from your Redis or other data intensive applications and workloads while reducing data center power costs.
Get insight from document-based distributed MongoDB databases sooner and have...Principled Technologies
With additional drive bays and 2nd Generation
Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Dell EMC
PowerEdge R640 servers delivered more Yahoo
Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB) operations per
second than previous-generation servers and
handled the workload more efficiently
Upgrade to Dell EMC PowerEdge R6515 servers and gain better OLTP and VDI perf...Principled Technologies
Additionally, PowerEdge R6515 servers with 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors could lower licensing costs and also empower your business to explore Kubernetes with VMware Tanzu
The Apache Spark config behind the indsutry's first 100TB Spark SQL benchmarkLenovo Data Center
Some configurations deserve their own SlideShare entry: this is one of them. When the indsutry's first 100TB Spark SQL benchmark was reached, the media took notice. For good reason.
Intel, Mellanox, Lenovo and IBM came together to investigate a topology that leveraged advances in CPU, memory, storage and networking to assess the readiness of Spark SQL to harness new capabilities -- and speeds.
Update your private cloud with 14th generation Dell EMC PowerEdge FC640 serve...Principled Technologies
Critical Apache Cassandra NoSQL databases can offer reliability and flexibility for workloads like media streaming or social media. Running these databases in a private cloud can let you maintain control of your data while giving you the agility and flexibility the cloud provides.
In our datacenter, the Dell EMC PowerEdge FC640 solution powered by Intel Xeon Gold 5120 processors dramatically increased performance for Apache Cassandra workloads compared to a legacy solution. By choosing a solution that can do up to 4.7 times the work of the legacy solution, your infrastructure could handle more requests at a time—and we found that the Dell EMC PowerEdge FC640 solution could do all this additional work in less space, which could let you hold off on renting more datacenter space or on building out your existing space as your business grows.
Investing in GenAI: Cost‑benefit analysis of Dell on‑premises deployments vs....Principled Technologies
Conclusion
Diving into the world of GenAI has the potential to yield a great many benefits for your organization, but it first requires consideration for how best to implement those GenAI workloads. Whether your AI goals are to create a chatbot for online visitors, generate marketing materials, aid troubleshooting, or something else, implementing an AI solution requires careful planning and decision-making. A major decision is whether to host GenAI in the cloud or keep your data on premises. Traditional on-premises solutions can provide superior security and control, a substantial concern when dealing with large amounts of potentially sensitive data. But will supporting a GenAI solution on site be a drain on an organization’s IT budget?
In our research, we found that the value proposition is just the opposite: Hosting GenAI workloads on premises, either in a traditional Dell solution or using a managed Dell APEX pay-per-use solution, could significantly lower your GenAI costs over 3 years compared to hosting these workloads in the cloud. In fact, we found that a comparable AWS SageMaker solution would cost up to 3.8 times as much and an Azure ML solution would cost up to 3.6 times as much as GenAI on a Dell APEX pay-per-use solution. These results show that organizations looking to implement GenAI and reap the business benefits to come can find many advantages in an on-premises Dell solution, whether they opt to purchase and manage it themselves or choose a subscription-based Dell APEX pay-per-use solution. Choosing an on-premises Dell solution could save your organization significantly over hosting GenAI in the cloud, while giving you control over the security and privacy of your data as well as any updates and changes to the environment, and while ensuring your environment is managed consistently.
Workstations powered by Intel can play a vital role in CPU-intensive AI devel...Principled Technologies
In three AI development workflows, Intel processor-powered workstations delivered strong performance, without using their GPUs, making them a good choice for this part of the AI process
Conclusion
We executed three AI development workflows on tower workstations and mobile workstations from three vendors, with each workflow utilizing only the Intel CPU cores, and found that these platforms were suitable for carrying out various AI tasks. For two of the workflows, we learned that completing the tasks on the tower workstations took roughly half as much time as on the mobile workstations. This supports the idea that the tower workstations would be appropriate for a development environment for more complex models with a greater volume of data and that the mobile workstations would be well-suited for data scientists fine-tuning simpler models. In the third workflow, we explored tower workstation performance with different precision levels and learned that using 16-bit floating point precision allowed the workstations to execute the workflow in less time and also reduced memory usage dramatically. For all three AI workflows we executed, we consider the time the workstations needed to complete the tasks to be acceptable, and believe that these workstations can be appropriate, cost-effective choices for these kinds of activities.
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With additional drive bays and 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Dell EMC PowerEdge R640 servers handled more Yahoo Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB) operations per second than previous-generation servers and handled them more efficiently
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Detailed, up-to-the-moment data analysis is becoming increasingly important for those who make business decisions. In our hands-on tests, a Dell PowerEdge C6620 server with a Dell PERC 12 RAID controller handled more operations per second for data analysis Cassandra workloads than an HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9
server with an HPE Smart Array P440ar controller. By selecting the Dell solution, you could give the decisionmakers in your organization earlier access to in-depth, actionable intelligence, by finding anomalies quickly in
unstructured data.
Handle more Oracle transactions and support more VMs with the Dell PowerEdge ...Principled Technologies
Compared to the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 with Smart Array P440ar Controller
If your organization runs Oracle Database for OLTP workloads, moving to a Dell PowerEdge R7625 with PERC 12 could be a choice that improves your overall performance and allows you to consolidate your data center hardware. In our tests, the PowerEdge R7625 with PERC 12 delivered 6.3 times the total NOPM and supported 2.5 times the number of VMs the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server did. By harnessing the power of the latest in RAID controller technology, the PowerEdge R7625 can provide an upgraded Oracle Database experience compared to the competitor we tested.
Dell PowerEdge R750 servers: Stronger Apache Hadoop big data performance with high availability
Conclusion
Organizations of all sizes have incorporated big data applications into their workflows, and rely on them daily. The enormous volume of information that companies now contend with drives the need for effective storage solutions. These solutions must support strong performance by delivering speedy access to data, which helps companies make critical business decisions in a timely manner. In addition, effective storage solutions protect data and keep it available even if individual storage components stop working.
We ran a disk-intensive TeraSort big data workload on two server-and-storage solutions. Both solutions used RAID for redundancy, but only one of them used high-speed NVMe storage media. The current-generation Dell PowerEdge R750 server with a Dell PERC 11 RAID controller and NVMe storage outperformed the previous-generation HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server with an HPE Smart Array P440ar Controller. The Dell solution completed a disk-intensive TeraSort workload in 27 percent less time and achieved a 36 percent greater throughput rate. These results show that by selecting the Dell PowerEdge R750 server with a Dell PERC 11 RAID controller, companies no longer need to choose between the data protection that comes with true redundant hardware RAID solutions and the performance benefits of the fastest NVMe drives. The Dell-Broadcom solution lets companies have both.
Dell PowerEdge R920 running Oracle Database: Benefits of upgrading with NVMe ...Principled Technologies
Strong server performance is essential to companies running Oracle Database. The new Dell PowerEdge R920 provides strong performance in its base configuration with 24 SAS hard disks, but this performance gets an enormous boost when running the configuration containing NVMe Express Flash PCIe SSDs. In our testing, the upgraded configuration of the Dell PowerEdge R920 delivered 14.9 times the database performance of the base configuration. In addition, in testing the raw I/O throughput of the NVMe Express Flash PCIe SSDs, we saw as much as 192.8 times the IOPS as compared to the base configuration. Given that the storage subsystem is critical in servers and specifically database applications, the performance improvements offered by NVMe Express Flash PCIe SSDs can lead to great service improvements for your customers, making this upgrade a very wise investment.
Dell PowerEdge R930 with Oracle: The benefits of upgrading to PCIe storage us...Principled Technologies
Strong server performance is essential to companies running Oracle Database. The new Dell PowerEdge R930 provided strong performance with 22 SAS HDDs, but this performance improved when we replaced all of the drives with SAS solid-state drives. It improved further when we used a mix of HDDs and SDDs along with SanDisk DAS Cache. We saw the greatest performance boost when we used eight PCIe SSDs with SanDisk DAS Cache. The upgraded configuration of the Dell PowerEdge R930 with PCIe SSDs and SanDisk DAS Cache delivered 11.1 times the database performance of the all-HDD configuration. This makes the new Dell PowerEdge R930 a powerful platform with scalable storage options that can potentially translate into significant service improvements for your business and your customers, which helps in maximizing ROI.
Get better Oracle Database performance when you upgrade to the Dell PowerEdge...Principled Technologies
Compared to the previous-gen Dell PowerEdge R7525 with PERC 11
Even if your Oracle Database servers are running well, you could improve performance by switching out previous-generation hardware for the latest technology. Our testing found that this was true for various OLTP workload types, including a CPU-targeted database workload, an IO-targeted workload, and a Balanced CPU/IO workload, with the Dell PowerEdge R7625 with PERC 12 offering as much as 2.39 times the Oracle Database performance that the previous-gen PowerEdge R7525 with PERC 11 did. In addition, the PowerEdge R7625 with PERC 12 had lower %iowait across the board, again showing that upgrading to the latest-generation server can improve database performance for various workload profiles. By moving to a new PowerEdge R7625, your
organization can support more customers and realize better system efficiency, which ultimately provides the opportunity to consolidate onto fewer systems to reduce operating costs.
By upgrading from the legacy solution we tested to the new Intel processor-based Dell and VMware solution, you could do 18 times the work in the same amount of space. Imagine what that performance could mean to your business: Consolidate workloads from across your company, lower your power and cooling bills, and limit datacenter expansion in the future, all while maintaining a consistent user experience—the list of potential benefits is huge.
Try running DPACK, which can help you identify bottlenecks in your environment and inform you about your current performance needs. Then consider how the consolidation ratio we proved could be helpful for your company. The Intel processor-powered Dell PowerEdge R730 solution with VMware vSphere and Dell Storage SC4020, also powered by Intel, could be the right destination for your upgrade journey.
Maximizing Oracle Database performance with Intel SSD DC P3600 Series NVMe SS...Principled Technologies
If your organization runs critical, high-demand databases in environments such as Oracle Database, strong performance is not an option: it’s a must-have. Additionally, getting that necessary strong performance out of a single server can be essential for running a space and cost-efficient datacenter. In the Principled Technologies labs, we found that the Dell PowerEdge R930 offered strong performance for such transactional databases when configured with SATA SSDs. When we upgraded the servers to Intel SSD DC P3600 Series NVMe SSDs, performance doubled, increasing by 2.17 times, or 117 percent. If your datacenter needs a new powerhouse server, purchasing your Dell PowerEdge R930 with Intel NVMe SSDs for a cost increase of only 18 percent can double the performance you get from each server. This increases what your infrastructure can do within the same amount of space and lets you ultimately save money that would otherwise be spent purchasing additional servers and software.
Improve performance and gain room to grow by easily migrating to a modern Ope...Principled Technologies
We deployed this modern environment, then migrated database VMs from legacy servers and saw performance improvements that support consolidation
Conclusion
If your organization’s transactional databases are running on gear that is several years old, you have much to gain by upgrading to modern servers with new processors and networking components and an OpenShift environment. In our testing, a modern OpenShift environment with a cluster of three Dell PowerEdge R7615 servers with 4th Generation AMD EPYC processors and high-speed 100Gb Broadcom NICs outperformed a legacy environment with MySQL VMs running on a cluster of three Dell PowerEdge R7515 servers with 3rd Generation AMD EPYC processors and 25Gb Broadcom NICs. We also easily migrated a VM from the legacy environment to the modern environment, with only a few steps required to set up and less than ten minutes of hands-on time. The performance advantage of the modern servers would allow a company to reduce the number of servers necessary to perform a given amount of database work, thus lowering operational expenditures such as power and cooling and IT staff time for maintenance. The high-speed 100Gb Broadcom NICs in this solution also give companies better network performance and networking capacity to grow as they embrace emerging technologies such as AI that put great demands on networks.
As our tests show, investing in the powerful new Dell PowerEdge R920 running Oracle Database 12c pluggable databases achieves cost savings without compromising performance. In our testing, a single Dell PowerEdge R920 was able to do nine times the work of a single HP ProLiant DL385 G6 server while the power and cooling costs dropped by 64 percent when compared to the nine servers it could replace. At 17 percent less, three-year software licensing savings were so dramatic that they paid back the new server costs in just six months, and over three years could save just under $300,000.
Run more data analysis more quickly using Dell PowerEdge R760 serversPrincipled Technologies
The latest-generation Dell PowerEdge R760 server, powered by 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, performed more data analysis in less time than either older server we tested
Data analytics can play a critical role in understanding your organization. With timely data analysis, decision‑makers can respond to trends or activity quickly and with the support of data-driven insight. New Dell PowerEdge R760 servers, either in addition to or in place of aging servers, can boost data warehouse workload performance to deliver insights sooner. In our testing, a latest-generation Dell PowerEdge R760 server powered by 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors completed 20 data analytics workloads in up to 41 percent less time than older Dell PowerEdge R750 and PowerEdge R740xd servers.
Move your private cloud to Dell EMC PowerEdge C6420 server nodes and boost Ap...Principled Technologies
Powered by 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Dell EMC PowerEdge C6420 server nodes handled 2X the operations per second of older HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9 nodes
Realize 2.1X the performance with 20% less power with AMD EPYC processor-back...Principled Technologies
Three AMD EPYC processor-based two-processor solutions outshined comparable Intel Xeon Scalable processor-based solutions by handling more Redis workload transactions and requests while consuming less power
Conclusion
Performance and energy efficiency are significant factors in processor selection for servers running data-intensive workloads, such as Redis. We compared the Redis performance and energy consumption of a server cluster in three AMD EPYC two-processor configurations against that of a server cluster in two Intel Xeon Scalable two-processor configurations. In each of our three test scenarios, the server cluster backed by AMD EPYC processors outperformed the server cluster backed by Intel Xeon Scalable processors. In addition, one of the AMD EPYC processor-based clusters consumed 20 percent less power than its Intel Xeon Scalable processor-based counterpart. Combining these measurements gave us power efficiency metrics that demonstrate how valuable AMD EPYC processor-based servers could be—you could see better performance per watt with these AMD EPYC processor-based server clusters and potentially get more from your Redis or other data intensive applications and workloads while reducing data center power costs.
Get insight from document-based distributed MongoDB databases sooner and have...Principled Technologies
With additional drive bays and 2nd Generation
Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Dell EMC
PowerEdge R640 servers delivered more Yahoo
Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB) operations per
second than previous-generation servers and
handled the workload more efficiently
Upgrade to Dell EMC PowerEdge R6515 servers and gain better OLTP and VDI perf...Principled Technologies
Additionally, PowerEdge R6515 servers with 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors could lower licensing costs and also empower your business to explore Kubernetes with VMware Tanzu
The Apache Spark config behind the indsutry's first 100TB Spark SQL benchmarkLenovo Data Center
Some configurations deserve their own SlideShare entry: this is one of them. When the indsutry's first 100TB Spark SQL benchmark was reached, the media took notice. For good reason.
Intel, Mellanox, Lenovo and IBM came together to investigate a topology that leveraged advances in CPU, memory, storage and networking to assess the readiness of Spark SQL to harness new capabilities -- and speeds.
Update your private cloud with 14th generation Dell EMC PowerEdge FC640 serve...Principled Technologies
Critical Apache Cassandra NoSQL databases can offer reliability and flexibility for workloads like media streaming or social media. Running these databases in a private cloud can let you maintain control of your data while giving you the agility and flexibility the cloud provides.
In our datacenter, the Dell EMC PowerEdge FC640 solution powered by Intel Xeon Gold 5120 processors dramatically increased performance for Apache Cassandra workloads compared to a legacy solution. By choosing a solution that can do up to 4.7 times the work of the legacy solution, your infrastructure could handle more requests at a time—and we found that the Dell EMC PowerEdge FC640 solution could do all this additional work in less space, which could let you hold off on renting more datacenter space or on building out your existing space as your business grows.
Similar to Speeding time to insight: The Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Dell PERC 12 RAID controller for Apache Cassandra big data workloads (20)
Investing in GenAI: Cost‑benefit analysis of Dell on‑premises deployments vs....Principled Technologies
Conclusion
Diving into the world of GenAI has the potential to yield a great many benefits for your organization, but it first requires consideration for how best to implement those GenAI workloads. Whether your AI goals are to create a chatbot for online visitors, generate marketing materials, aid troubleshooting, or something else, implementing an AI solution requires careful planning and decision-making. A major decision is whether to host GenAI in the cloud or keep your data on premises. Traditional on-premises solutions can provide superior security and control, a substantial concern when dealing with large amounts of potentially sensitive data. But will supporting a GenAI solution on site be a drain on an organization’s IT budget?
In our research, we found that the value proposition is just the opposite: Hosting GenAI workloads on premises, either in a traditional Dell solution or using a managed Dell APEX pay-per-use solution, could significantly lower your GenAI costs over 3 years compared to hosting these workloads in the cloud. In fact, we found that a comparable AWS SageMaker solution would cost up to 3.8 times as much and an Azure ML solution would cost up to 3.6 times as much as GenAI on a Dell APEX pay-per-use solution. These results show that organizations looking to implement GenAI and reap the business benefits to come can find many advantages in an on-premises Dell solution, whether they opt to purchase and manage it themselves or choose a subscription-based Dell APEX pay-per-use solution. Choosing an on-premises Dell solution could save your organization significantly over hosting GenAI in the cloud, while giving you control over the security and privacy of your data as well as any updates and changes to the environment, and while ensuring your environment is managed consistently.
Workstations powered by Intel can play a vital role in CPU-intensive AI devel...Principled Technologies
In three AI development workflows, Intel processor-powered workstations delivered strong performance, without using their GPUs, making them a good choice for this part of the AI process
Conclusion
We executed three AI development workflows on tower workstations and mobile workstations from three vendors, with each workflow utilizing only the Intel CPU cores, and found that these platforms were suitable for carrying out various AI tasks. For two of the workflows, we learned that completing the tasks on the tower workstations took roughly half as much time as on the mobile workstations. This supports the idea that the tower workstations would be appropriate for a development environment for more complex models with a greater volume of data and that the mobile workstations would be well-suited for data scientists fine-tuning simpler models. In the third workflow, we explored tower workstation performance with different precision levels and learned that using 16-bit floating point precision allowed the workstations to execute the workflow in less time and also reduced memory usage dramatically. For all three AI workflows we executed, we consider the time the workstations needed to complete the tasks to be acceptable, and believe that these workstations can be appropriate, cost-effective choices for these kinds of activities.
Enable security features with no impact to OLTP performance with Dell PowerEd...Principled Technologies
Get comparable online transaction processing (OLTP) performance with or without enabling AMD Secure Memory Encryption and AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization - Encrypted State
Conclusion
You’ve likely already implemented many security measures for your servers, which may include physical security for the data center, hardware-level security, and software-level security. With the cost of data breaches high and still growing, however, wise IT teams will consider what additional security measures they may be able to implement.
AMD SME and SEV-ES are technologies that are already available within your AMD processor-powered 16th Generation Dell PowerEdge servers—and in our testing, we saw that they can offer extra layers of security without affecting performance. We compared the online transaction processing performance of a Dell PowerEdge R7625 server, powered by AMD EPYC 9274F processors, with and without these two security features enabled. We found that enabling AMD Secure Memory Encryption and Secure Encrypted Virtualization-Encrypted State did not impact performance at all.
If your team is assessing areas where you might be able to enhance security—without paying a large performance cost—consider enabling AME SME and AMD SEV-ES in your Dell PowerEdge servers.
Improving energy efficiency in the data center: Endure higher temperatures wi...Principled Technologies
In high-temperature test scenarios, a Dell PowerEdge HS5620 server continued running an intensive workload without component warnings or failures, while a Supermicro SYS‑621C-TN12R server failed
Conclusion: Remain resilient in high temperatures with the Dell PowerEdge HS5620 to help increase efficiency
Increasing your data center’s temperature can help your organization make strides in energy efficiency and cooling cost savings. With servers that can hold up to these higher everyday temperatures—as well as high temperatures due to unforeseen circumstances—your business can continue to deliver the performance your apps and clients require.
When we ran an intensive floating-point workload on a Dell PowerEdge HS5620 and a Supermicro SYS-621CTN12R in three scenario types simulating typical operations at 25°C, a fan failure, and an HVAC malfunction, the Dell server experienced no component warnings or failures. In contrast, the Supermicro server experienced warnings in all three scenario types and experienced component failures in the latter two tests, rendering the system unusable. When we inspected and analyzed each system, we found that the Dell PowerEdge HS5620 server’s motherboard layout, fans, and chassis offered cooling design advantages.
For businesses aiming to meet sustainability goals by running hotter data centers, as well as those concerned with server cooling design, the Dell PowerEdge HS5620 is a strong contender to take on higher temperatures during day-to-day operations and unexpected malfunctions.
Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift: An easily deployable and powe...Principled Technologies
The 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processor‑powered solution deployed in less than two hours and ran a Kubernetes container-based generative AI workload effectively
Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift: An easily deployable and powe...Principled Technologies
The 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processor‑powered solution deployed in less than two hours and ran a generative AI workload effectively
Conclusion
The appeal of incorporating GenAI into your organization’s operations is likely great. Getting started with an efficient solution for your next LLM workload or application can seem daunting because of the changing hardware and software landscape, but Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift powered by 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors could provide the solution you need. We started with a Dell Validated Design as a reference, and then went on to modify the deployment as necessary for our Llama 2 workload. The Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift solution worked well for our LLM, and by using this deployment guide in conjunction with numerous Dell documents and some flexibility, you could be well on your way to innovating your next GenAI breakthrough.
Upgrade your cloud infrastructure with Dell PowerEdge R760 servers and VMware...Principled Technologies
Compared to a cluster of PowerEdge R750 servers running VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)
For organizations running clusters of moderately configured, older Dell PowerEdge servers with a previous version of VCF, upgrading to better-configured modern servers can provide a significant performance boost and more.
Upgrade your cloud infrastructure with Dell PowerEdge R760 servers and VMware...Principled Technologies
Compared to a cluster of PowerEdge R750 servers running VMware Cloud Foundation 4.5
If your company is struggling with underperforming infrastructure, upgrading to 16th Generation Dell PowerEdge servers running VCF 5.1 could be just what you need to handle more database throughput and reduce vSAN latencies. As an additional benefit to IT admins, we also found that the embedded VMware Aria Operation adapter provided useful infrastructure insights.
Boost PC performance: How more available memory can improve productivityPrincipled Technologies
With more memory available, system performance of three Dell devices increased, which can translate to a better user experience
Conclusion
When your system has plenty of RAM to meet your needs, you can efficiently access the applications and data you need to finish projects and to-do lists without sacrificing time and focus. Our test results show that with more memory available, three Dell PCs delivered better performance and took less time to complete the Procyon Office Productivity benchmark. These advantages translate to users being able to complete workflows more quickly and multitask more easily. Whether you need the mobility of the Latitude 5440, the creative capabilities of the Precision 3470, or the high performance of the OptiPlex Tower Plus 7010, configuring your system with more RAM can help keep processes running smoothly, enabling you to do more without compromising performance.
Deploy with confidence: VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 on next gen Dell PowerEdg...Principled Technologies
A Principled Technologies deployment guide
Conclusion
Deploying VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 on next gen Dell PowerEdge servers brings together critical virtualization capabilities and high-performing hardware infrastructure. Relying on our hands-on experience, this deployment guide offers a comprehensive roadmap that can guide your organization through the seamless integration of advanced VMware cloud solutions with the performance and reliability of Dell PowerEdge servers. In addition to the deployment efficiency, the Cloud Foundation 5.1 and PowerEdge solution delivered strong performance while running a MySQL database workload. By leveraging VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 and PowerEdge servers, you could help your organization embrace cloud computing with confidence, potentially unlocking a new level of agility, scalability, and efficiency in your data center operations.
Upgrade your cloud infrastructure with Dell PowerEdge R760 servers and VMware...Principled Technologies
Compared to a cluster of PowerEdge R750 servers running VMware Cloud Foundation 4.5
Conclusion
If your company is struggling with underperforming infrastructure, upgrading to 16th Generation Dell PowerEdge servers running VCF 5.1 could be just what you need to handle more database throughput and reduce vSAN latencies. We found that a Dell PowerEdge R760 server cluster running VCF 5.1 processed over 78 percent more TPM and 79 percent more NOPM than a Dell PowerEdge R750 server cluster running VCF 4.5. It’s also worth noting that the PowerEdge R750 cluster bottlenecked on vSAN storage, with max write latency at 8.9ms. For reference, the PowerEdge R760 cluster clocked in at 3.8ms max write latency. This higher latency is due in part to the single disk group per host on the moderately configured PowerEdge R750 cluster, while the better-configured PowerEdge R760 cluster supported four disk groups per host. As an additional benefit to IT admins, we also found that the embedded VMware Aria Operation adapter provided useful infrastructure insights.
Based on our research using publicly available materials, it appears that Dell supports nine of the ten PC security features we investigated, HP supports six of them, and Lenovo supports three features.
Increase security, sustainability, and efficiency with robust Dell server man...Principled Technologies
Compared to the Supermicro management portfolio
Conclusion
Choosing a vendor for server purchases is about more than just the hardware platform. Decision-makers must also consider more long-term concerns, including system/data security, energy efficiency, and ease of management. These concerns make the systems management tools a vendor offers as important as the hardware.
We investigated the features and capabilities of server management tools from Dell and Supermicro, comparing Dell iDRAC9 against Supermicro IPMI for embedded server management and Dell OpenManage Enterprise and CloudIQ against Supermicro Server Manager for one-to-many device and console management and monitoring. We found that the Dell management tools provided more comprehensive security, sustainability, and management/monitoring features and capabilities than Supermicro servers did. In addition, Dell tools automated more tasks to ease server management, resulting in significant time savings for administrators versus having to do the same tasks manually with Supermicro tools.
When making a server purchase, a vendor’s associated management products are critical to protect data, support a more sustainable environment, and to ease the maintenance of systems. Our tests and research showed that the Dell management portfolio for PowerEdge servers offered more features to help organizations meet these goals than the comparable Supermicro management products.
Increase security, sustainability, and efficiency with robust Dell server man...Principled Technologies
Compared to the Supermicro management portfolio
Conclusion
Choosing a vendor for server purchases is about more than just the hardware platform. Decision-makers must also consider more long-term concerns, including system/data security, energy efficiency, and ease of management. These concerns make the systems management tools a vendor offers as important as the hardware.
We investigated the features and capabilities of server management tools from Dell and Supermicro, comparing Dell iDRAC9 against Supermicro IPMI for embedded server management and Dell OpenManage Enterprise and CloudIQ against Supermicro Server Manager for one-to-many device and console management and monitoring. We found that the Dell management tools provided more comprehensive security, sustainability, and management/monitoring features and capabilities than Supermicro servers did. In addition, Dell tools automated more tasks to ease server management, resulting in significant time savings for administrators versus having to do the same tasks manually with Supermicro tools.
When making a server purchase, a vendor’s associated management products are critical to protect data, support a more sustainable environment, and to ease the maintenance of systems. Our tests and research showed that the Dell management portfolio for PowerEdge servers offered more features to help organizations meet these goals than the comparable Supermicro management products.
Scale up your storage with higher-performing Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS ...Principled Technologies
In our tests, Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS outperformed similarly configured solutions from Vendor A, achieving more IOPS, better throughput, and more consistent performance on both NVMe-supported configurations and configurations backed by Elastic Block Store (EBS) alone.
Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS supports a full NVMe backed configuration, but Vendor A doesn’t—its solution uses EBS for storage capacity and NVMe as an extended read cache—which means APEX Block Storage for AWS can deliver faster storage performance.
Scale up your storage with higher-performing Dell APEX Block Storage for AWSPrincipled Technologies
Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS offered stronger and more consistent storage performance for better business agility than a Vendor A solution
Conclusion
Enterprises desiring the flexibility and convenience of the cloud for their block storage workloads can find fast-performing solutions with the enterprise storage features they’re used to in on-premises infrastructure by selecting Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS.
Our hands-on tests showed that compared to the Vendor A solution, Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS offered stronger, more consistent storage performance in both NVMe-supported and EBS-backed configurations. Using NVMe-supported configurations, Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS achieved 4.7x the random read IOPS and 5.1x the throughput on sequential read operations per node vs. Vendor A. In our EBS-backed comparison, Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS offered 2.2x the throughput per node on sequential read operations vs. Vendor A.
Plus, the ability to scale beyond three nodes—up to 512 storage nodes with capacity of up to 8 PBs—enables Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS to help ensure performance and capacity as your team plans for the future.
Get in and stay in the productivity zone with the HP Z2 G9 Tower WorkstationPrincipled Technologies
We compared CPU performance and noise output of an HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation in High Performance Mode to Dell Precision 3660 and 5860 tower workstations in optimized performance modes
Conclusion
HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation users can change the BIOS settings to dial in the performance mode that best suits their needs: High Performance Mode, Performance Mode, or Quiet Mode. In good
news for both creative and technical professionals, we found that an Intel Core i9-13900 processor-powered HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation set to High Performance mode received higher CPU-based benchmark scores than both a similarly configured Dell Precision 3660 and a Dell Precision 5860 equipped with an Intel Xeon w5-2455x processor. Plus, the HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation was quieter while running CPU-intensive Cinebench 2024 and SPECapc for Solidworks 2022 workloads than both Dell Precision tower workstations. This means HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation users who prize performance over everything else can do so without sacrificing a quiet workspace.
Open up new possibilities with higher transactional database performance from...Principled Technologies
In our PostgreSQL tests, R7i instances boosted performance over R6i instances with previous-gen processors
If you use the open-source PostgreSQL database to run your critical business operations, you have many cloud options from which to choose. While many of these instances can do the job, some can deliver stronger performance, which can mean getting a greater return on your cloud investment.
We conducted hands-on testing with the HammerDB TPROC-C benchmark to see how the PostgreSQL performance of Amazon EC2 R7i instances, enabled by 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, stacked up to that of R6i instances with previous-generation processors. We learned that small, medium-sized, and large R7i instances with the newer processors delivered better OLTP performance, with improvements as high as 13.8 percent. By choosing the R7i instances, your organization has the potential to support more users, deliver a better experience to those users, and even lower your cloud operating expenditures by requiring fewer instances to get the job done.
Improving database performance and value with an easy migration to Azure Data...Principled Technologies
Migrating from Azure Database for MySQL – Single Server to a Flexible Server solution was quick and provided performance and cost benefits
Don’t put off migrating your databases from Azure Database for MySQL – Single Server until the last minute—which is September 2024, when the service will end. Our hands-on testing shows that moving to Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server is a simple process that can actually improve your overall database performance and offer better value. With as much as 117 percent better OLTP performance on sysbench and up to 266 percent better performance per dollar, migrating your database to Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server with AMD EPYC processors can help you serve more database users and potentially improve your operating budget compared to the expiring Single Server option.
Realize better value and performance migrating from Azure Database for Postgr...Principled Technologies
With Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Single Server instances set for retirement, the time to migrate to your databases to new Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server instances is now.
Migrating to Flexible Server and getting these benefits is easy. Follow our step-by-step guide to complete an offline migration using the Azure Migration tool.
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
PHP Frameworks: I want to break free (IPC Berlin 2024)Ralf Eggert
In this presentation, we examine the challenges and limitations of relying too heavily on PHP frameworks in web development. We discuss the history of PHP and its frameworks to understand how this dependence has evolved. The focus will be on providing concrete tips and strategies to reduce reliance on these frameworks, based on real-world examples and practical considerations. The goal is to equip developers with the skills and knowledge to create more flexible and future-proof web applications. We'll explore the importance of maintaining autonomy in a rapidly changing tech landscape and how to make informed decisions in PHP development.
This talk is aimed at encouraging a more independent approach to using PHP frameworks, moving towards a more flexible and future-proof approach to PHP development.
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
De-mystifying Zero to One: Design Informed Techniques for Greenfield Innovati...
Speeding time to insight: The Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Dell PERC 12 RAID controller for Apache Cassandra big data workloads
1. Speeding time to insight: The Dell PowerEdge
C6620 with Dell PERC 12 RAID controller for
Apache Cassandra big data workloads
The new PowerEdge C6620 delivered better performance—both higher
throughput and lower latency—than a previous-generation PowerEdge
C6520 with PERC 11
Overview
Every day, individuals and organizations generate massive quantities of data, from text messages to
location data to information from sensors on factory floors and beyond. This rapid proliferation of data
offers enormous opportunities: If businesses can extract insights from that data, they can use it to improve
their operations, grow their customer base, and provide a better experience to those customers.
That task is not simple, however. Much of this data is unstructured, meaning that it comes in many
formats that traditional data models, such as SQL databases, cannot process. Processing and analyzing
unstructured data may require different methods, such as utilizing a NoSQL database like Apache®
Cassandra®
. Organizations can use NoSQL databases to store, mine, and analyze unstructured data in its
many forms and gain actionable information.
To efficiently analyze such large quantities of data, however, they need a powerful computing solution
running the database system. Investing in newer server solutions with updated processing, storage,
and networking components can offer greater performance and enable companies to get to those vital
insights faster. To highlight the advantages of moving from an older server solution to a new one for big
data workloads, we tested Apache Cassandra performance on a new Dell™
PowerEdge™
C6620 with
a Broadcom®
-based Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) 12 and an older Dell PowerEdge C6520
with Dell PERC 11. On multiple performance metrics, the newer Dell PowerEdge C6620 with PERC 12
delivered stronger performance than its predecessor, offering businesses the chance to increase the
value of their data and realize its benefits more quickly.
Speeding time to insight: The Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Dell PERC 12 RAID controller
for Apache Cassandra big data workloads
October 2023
A Principled Technologies report: Hands-on testing. Real-world results.
2. About the Dell PowerEdge C6620 server
Part of the Dell modular infrastructure PowerEdge C-Series, Dell says the PowerEdge C6620
is “designed for compute-intensive workloads” but also “ideal for IOPS-heavy workloads.”1
It features up to two 4th
Generation Intel®
Xeon®
Scalable processors, with up to 56 cores per
processor; offers memory speeds of up to 4,800 MT/s; and supports up to 16 NVMe®
drives
for workload acceleration. Optional liquid cooling is also available.
To learn more about the Dell PowerEdge C6620, visit https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/
enterprise-products/c6620-two-socket-server-node-intel/spd/poweredge-c6620.
Image provided by Dell
Testing the Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Broadcom-based
PERC 12
If you’re still relying on servers you purchased several years ago, it can be helpful to understand exactly
how much you could gain by upgrading to a newer solution. We designed our testing to quantify the
benefits of upgrading from older to latest-generation servers for organizations relying on Cassandra
workloads for critical operations.
Our configurations
To set up our test environment, we installed VMware®
vSphere®
8 on both servers. We then configured
a separate infrastructure server with VMware ESXi™
and VMware vCenter®
to manage the servers and to
host client VMs that ran our test workload against our databases. The Dell PowerEdge C6620 server with
Broadcom-based PERC 12 used two Dell U2 Gen4 NVMe®
3.84TB drives, while the Dell PowerEdge C6520
server with PERC 11 used six 960GB mixed-use SAS 12Gbps SFF drives. (See Table 1 for more details of
our configuration.)
Speeding time to insight: The Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Dell PERC 12 RAID controller
for Apache Cassandra big data workloads
October 2023 | 2
3. Table 1: System configurations we used in our testing. Source: Principled Technologies.
Server configuration information Dell PowerEdge C6520 Dell PowerEdge C6620
Processors
2x Intel Xeon Gold 6330
28 cores, 2GHz
2x Intel Xeon Platinum 8452Y
36 cores, 2GHz
Storage controller PERC H750 Adapter, 8GB cache PERC H965i Adapter, 8GB cache
Disks
6x 960GB Toshiba PX05SVB096Y
(12Gb SAS SSDs)
2x 3.84TB Dell Enterprise NVMe v2
AGN RI U.2 (NVMe SSDs)
Total memory in system (GB) 512
OS and version number VMware ESXi 8.0.0, 20513097
On each server, we created a Cassandra gold VM and cloned it five times to create a total of six VMs,
which we joined in a cluster configuration. We then used the Yahoo Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB) to
create a 100GB database across the six VMs to take advantage of the distributed database functionality
of Cassandra, ran YCSB workload B for 30 minutes, and recorded the results. In the results we highlight
below, we provide two perspectives on the performance of each setup: the total throughput and the
average read and write latency. Both results reflect the performance across all six VMs.
Why YCSB?
YCSB is an industry-standard benchmark for NoSQL databases. In 2010, a group from Yahoo! Research
created it with “the goal of facilitating performance comparisons of the new generation of cloud data
serving systems.”2
It is open source, meaning that anyone can access and modify the source code.
In a recent interview, contributors to the YCSB open-source community note that it “is rather largely
accepted by users” and “represents a series of scenarios that can be abstracted from the real world.”3
Apache Cassandra was one of the first four databases that the YCSB creators tested with the benchmark
in 2010, and YCSB remains a good fit for testing Cassandra performance today.4
YCSB functions by letting users create a database populated with synthetic data on their database
system of choice. Users can then run a pre-defined or customized workload against the database to
gauge system performance. YCSB offers six core workloads, each of which represents a different type
of database work. Our testing used the read-intensive workload B. This workload is 95 percent reads
(pulling data from a database) and 5 percent writes (adding to or changing data in a database). YCSB
gives one application example as photo tagging, where a user might occasionally add a tag to a photo
(write) but will mostly search a library of tagged photos (read).5
A solution that offers higher performance
on YCSB workload B is likely to improve performance on other read-intensive workloads, such as data
analysis. We chose this workload to focus on reading and analyzing a database.
Speeding time to insight: The Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Dell PERC 12 RAID controller
for Apache Cassandra big data workloads
October 2023 | 3
4. See higher throughput and lower latency with the Dell
PowerEdge C6620 with Broadcom-based PERC 12
Our testing with YCSB yielded three metrics: read
latency, update (or write) latency, and throughput
(measured in operations per second). The Dell
PowerEdge C6620 with Broadcom-based PERC 12
offered stronger performance than the PowerEdge
C6520 with PERC 11 on all three metrics, indicating that
an upgrade can help speed your Cassandra workloads.
On the first and second metrics, read latency and
update latency, the Dell PowerEdge C6620 was
significantly faster than its previous-generation
counterpart. Read latency measures the delay between
the application requesting a piece of data and the
database system delivering it; update latency measures
the delay between the application changing or adding
a piece of data and the database system completing
the action. The shorter these delays, the faster a
solution will be at completing user-facing requests,
such as retrieving a customer’s buying history when a
store manager searches for it, and larger workloads,
such as running analysis on a set of tens of thousands
of data points.
On the surface, the differences in latency between
the two solutions are very small: 0.49 milliseconds
for read latency and 0.57 milliseconds for update
latency. On a single operation, a delay of less than
a millisecond would be impossible for a human to
notice. But the database system isn’t handling just
one operation—it’s handling thousands or millions of
operations all at once. Our YCSB testing, for example,
set the maxexecutiontime variable (or how long the
benchmark should run) to 30 minutes. This means that
at the Dell PowerEdge C6620 server’s rate of 249,210
operations per second (which we show in Figure 3),
it executed over 400 million operations during the
30-minute test. As tiny differences in latency scales up,
they become very significant indeed. And the shorter
these delays, the faster a solution will be at completing
both user-facing requests, such as retrieving a
customer’s buying history when a store manager
searches for it, and larger workloads, such as running
analysis on a set of tens of thousands of data points.
About the Dell PERC 12
RAID controller
The Dell PowerEdge C6620 we tested
features the PERC 12, which offers a single
front controller with full RAID support for
both NVMe and SAS.6
It brings 3,200MHz
cache memory speed and a 16-lane host
bus type and supports RAID levels 0, 1, 5,
6, 10, 50, and 60.7
The Dell PERC 12 is based on the
Broadcom SAS4116W series chip.
According to Broadcom, “this eighth-
generation SAS RAID-on-Chip (ROC) is
based on the industry-leading Fusion-MPT
architecture and features Tri-Mode SerDes
technology that enables a seamless
operation of up to 16-wide direct-connect
NVMe, SAS or SATA storage devices from
any system design.…The Tri-Mode ROC
device with 16-wide PCIe Gen 4.0 lanes
provides SAS data transfer rates of 22.5,
12, 6Gb/s per lane and 6Gb/s SATA data
transfer rates per lane. The high-port count
ROC helps eliminate storage bottlenecks
with support of x8, x4, x2, and x1 PCI
Express®
lanes and complies with the PCIe
4.0 specification, offering up to 6 million
IOPS (random reads) and up to 900,000
IOPS in RAID (random writes).”8
To learn more about the Dell PERC 12, visit
https://infohub.delltechnologies.com/p/
dell-poweredge-raid-controller-12/.
Speeding time to insight: The Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Dell PERC 12 RAID controller
for Apache Cassandra big data workloads
October 2023 | 4
5. On the third metric, throughput, the Dell PowerEdge C6620 delivered 1.25 times as many operations
per second as the previous-generation PowerEdge C6520. This increase in throughput is what we would
expect to see based on the lower latencies: If a system is able to process operations faster (i.e., with
lower latency), it will also boost how many operations the system can handle in a given time (i.e., better
throughput). With greater throughput, depending on what read-intensive workloads your organization is
running, you might see faster video streaming, quicker recommendations for customers, or an increase
in the speed of users pulling up data.
NoSQL databases and Cassandra in today’s business landscape
For this study, we tested with Apache Cassandra, a widely used NoSQL database system. NoSQL,
or non-relational, databases are a category of database system that store and query data that do not
have a traditional data structure. Traditional SQL databases organize data in a column-row format for
finding or creating relationships across the data. To store data in a SQL database, all data in each table
must have the same structure and fit a pre-defined schema, with every row in each table including
the same columns and formats every time. NoSQL databases, however, can organize data more
dynamically. They can deal with data from documents, graphs, key-values, and more. This flexibility
lets people use them to analyze documents or data that don’t follow identical structuring formats. For
organizations that need to store and analyze unstructured data—which may include data from Internet
of Things (IoT) applications, audio, video, text files, social media posts, and more—a NoSQL database is
a great option.
Figure 3: Total operations per second the two solutions achieved on YCSB workload B. Higher is better.
Source: Principled Technologies.
Total operations per second on YCSB workload B
Higher is better
Dell PowerEdge C6620 with PERC 12 Dell PowerEdge C6520 with PERC 11
249,210.0
198,161.3
Figure 2: Average update latency the two solutions achieved on YCSB workload B. Lower is better. Source: Principled Technologies.
Average update latency on YCSB workload B
Milliseconds | Lower is better
Dell PowerEdge C6620 with PERC 12 Dell PowerEdge C6520 with PERC 11
1.29
1.86
Figure 1: Average read latency the two solutions achieved on YCSB workload B. Lower is better. Source: Principled Technologies.
Average read latency on YCSB workload B
Milliseconds | Lower is better
Dell PowerEdge C6620 with PERC 12 Dell PowerEdge C6520 with PERC 11
1.82
2.31
Speeding time to insight: The Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Dell PERC 12 RAID controller
for Apache Cassandra big data workloads
October 2023 | 5
6. There are many types of NoSQL database systems; Apache Cassandra is a type of key-value and wide-
column store. These databases have essentially two fields: One is the key, and the other is the value. The
value can be any type of data (text, numbers, etc.). Taking our previous example, a key-value database
could have some keys that correspond to a date, others that are numbers, and so on. A wide-column
database, which Cassandra uses, is a two-dimensional key-value database, where instead of mapping to
just one value, the keys can map to several columns of values.
Apache Cassandra is a distributed database, meaning that it can run on multiple nodes while acting as
a single entity. This makes it resilient and highly scalable. Its scalability, combined with the flexibility
afforded by its hybrid key-value/tabular model, allows it to handle many types of big data work very
well. Cassandra is also open-source and free, a compelling benefit for organizations seeking to save on
licensing fees.
The flexibility of Cassandra makes it suitable for a very large range of use cases. For example, Instagram
uses Cassandra to support its content feed, Spotify uses it to store playlist metadata, and Intuit uses it as
part of their largest production clusters supporting TurboTax.9,10,11
Common uses of Cassandra include:
• Analysis of customer data for personalization and recommendation, such as in ecommerce
environments and content sharing or streaming websites
• Storage and analysis of IoT data, such as data gathered from mobile and wearable devices,
environmental sensors, and edge devices
• Fraud detection, especially for financial organizations
• Messaging, such as for organizations’ internal messaging platforms
We chose to test with Cassandra in part because so many organizations rely on it for everyday
operations. Approximately 90 percent of Fortune 100 companies use Apache Cassandra in some
capacity.12
If your organization uses Cassandra or is considering doing so, to get the most value from it,
you will want to ensure that the solution backing your implementation offers high performance. As our
testing highlights, the Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Broadcom-based PERC 12 can deliver just that.
Dell PowerEdge servers: A proven history of strong Apache
Cassandra performance
In this study, we tested the Apache Cassandra performance of a new Dell PowerEdge C6620
server compared to an HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9 server, but this isn’t the first time we’ve seen
strong Cassandra performance on a latest-generation Dell server.
In 2019, we tested Apache Cassandra performance on a 14th
generation PowerEdge C-series
server, the Dell EMC PowerEdge C6420. Pitted against an older modular solution of HPE
ProLiant XL170r Gen9 server nodes, the PowerEdge C6420 accomplished double the amount
of work in the same amount of rack space.13
Two years prior, in 2017, we assessed a different
product line from the 14th
generation of PowerEdge servers—the Dell EMC PowerEdge FC640
server—and found that it delivered dramatically more throughput and consistently lower latency
than a legacy solution of PowerEdge R710 servers.14
Speeding time to insight: The Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Dell PERC 12 RAID controller
for Apache Cassandra big data workloads
October 2023 | 6
7. Conclusion
The vast amounts of unstructured data that people and organizations generate daily have the potential
to bring incredible value to companies that can utilize it quickly and correctly. Buried in the data are
insights about consumer preferences, product performance, environmental trends, and more—but to
access those insights at the speed of business, you need high-performing NoSQL databases. Aging
servers may be holding you back from the full value of your data.
We found that the new Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Broadcom-based PERC 12 RAID controller can
speed read-intensive Apache Cassandra database workloads compared to an older server solution.
Faster read and update latencies and higher throughput, as we saw the PowerEdge C6620 deliver,
can speed the retrieval, processing, and analysis of your unstructured data, enabling you to more
effectively extract its value. To more fully utilize your data to inform your everyday business operations,
consider the Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Broadcom-based PERC 12 RAID controller.
Speeding time to insight: The Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Dell PERC 12 RAID controller
for Apache Cassandra big data workloads
October 2023 | 7
8. This project was commissioned by Dell Technologies.
1. “PowerEdge C6620,” accessed June 23, 2023, https://www.delltechnologies.com/asset/en-us/products/servers/
technical-support/poweredge-c6620-spec-sheet.pdf.
2. Brian F. Cooper, Adam Silberstein, Erwin Tam, Raghu Ramakrishnan, Russell Sears, “Benchmarking Cloud Serving
Systems with YCSB,” accessed June 23, 2023, https://courses.cs.duke.edu/fall13/compsci590.4/838-CloudPa-
pers/ycsb.pdf.
3. “The Ultimate YCSB Benchmark Guide (2021),” accessed June 23, 2023, https://benchant.com/blog/ycsb.
4. Brian F. Cooper, Adam Silberstein, Erwin Tam, Raghu Ramakrishnan, Russell Sears, “Benchmarking Cloud Serving
Systems with YCSB,” accessed June 23, 2023, https://courses.cs.duke.edu/fall13/compsci590.4/838-CloudPa-
pers/ycsb.pdf.
5. “brianfrankcooper/YCSB,” accessed June 23, 2023,
https://github.com/brianfrankcooper/YCSB/blob/master/doc/coreworkloads.html.
6. “Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller 12 User’s Guide PERC H965i Adapter, PERC H965i Front, and PERC H965i
MX,” accessed June 27, 2023, https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/perc-h965i-front/perc12/dell-tech-
nologies-poweredge-raid-controller-12?guid=guid-5889415d-b297-43a0-9197-113a56c33c79&lang=en-us.
7. “SAS4116W 24G SAS Tri-Mode RAID-on-Chip (ROC),” accessed June 27, 2023,
https://www.broadcom.com/products/storage/raid-on-chip/sas-4116w.
8. “SAS4116W 24G SAS Tri-Mode RAID-on-Chip (ROC).”
9. Instagram Engineering, “Open-sourcing a 10x reduction in Apache Cassandra tail latency,” accessed June 27,
2023, https://instagram-engineering.com/open-sourcing-a-10x-reduction-in-apache-cassandra-tail-latencyd-
64f86b43589.
10. Kinshuk Mishra and Matt Brown, “Personalization at Spotify using Cassandra,” accessed June 27, 2023,
https://engineering.atspotify.com/2015/01/personalization-at-spotify-using-cassandra/.
11. Denson Pokta, “Pronto! Intuit Releases First Open Source Cassandra Cluster Manager,” accessed June 27, 2023,
https://thenewstack.io/pronto-intuit-releases-first-open-source-cassandra-cluster-manager/.
12. Jeff Carpenter, “How the world caught up with Apache Cassandra,” accessed June 27, 2023,
https://techcrunch.com/sponsor/datastax/how-the-world-caught-up-with-apache-cassandra/.
13. “Move your private cloud to Dell EMC PowerEdge C6420 server nodes and boost Apache Cassandra database
analysis,” accessed June 23, 2023, https://www.principledtechnologies.com/Dell/Power-Edge-C6420-Apache-
Cassandra-1019-v2.pdf.
14. “Update your private cloud with 14th
generation Dell EMC PowerEdge FC640 servers and do more work in
less space,” accessed June 23, 2023, https://www.principledtechnologies.com/Dell/PowerEdge_FX2s_FC640_
Apache_Cassandra_1117.pdf.
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.®
Read the science behind this report at https://facts.pt/A5YAzMh
Speeding time to insight: The Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Dell PERC 12 RAID controller
for Apache Cassandra big data workloads
October 2023 | 8