Database performance comparison of VMware vCloud Air, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure

MARCH 2015
A PRINCIPLED TECHNOLOGIES REPORT
Prepared for VMware, Inc.
DATABASE PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF VMWARE VCLOUD AIR,
AMAZON WEB SERVICES, AND MICROSOFT AZURE
Businesses are rapidly transitioning to the public cloud to take
advantage of on-demand resources and potential cost savings. Compared to the
traditional datacenter model, where a business purchases and maintains its own
physical servers on-site, running your virtualized applications off-premises and
on infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platforms offers enormous flexibility,
enhances disaster recovery planning, and can save companies in a variety of
ways, including management and capital expenditures.
Many public cloud services are available, and the performance that each
delivers can vary considerably. From the Principled Technologies labs, we tested
the database performance of three public cloud solutions: VMware vCloud Air,
Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Microsoft Azure.
We found that the database performance of our vCloud Air instance
was more than 12 times that of our Azure instance and 3.9 percent greater than
our AWS instance. This kind of advantage can translate to cost savings in your
public cloud architecture.

A Principled Technologies report 2Database performance comparison of VMware vCloud Air, Amazon
Web Services, and Microsoft Azure
THE POWER OF THE CLOUD
Businesses moving their computing to the cloud gain efficiency, cut up-front
expenses, and enjoy a number of other advantages. It is the rare business in which
computing needs remain constant—demand on servers can fluctuate seasonally, as
companies grow, in response to special events, and due to countless other factors.
Regardless of the reason, IaaS allows a company to immediately expand and contract
their compute and storage resources to meet the needs of any particular moment. This
responsiveness means that the company saves money by expanding server resources
only when demand requires, not weeks or months or years before. More importantly,
this responsiveness means employees, customers, and other users are taken care of
right away. The company is able to respond to business needs more quickly and deliver
resources more nimbly.
The public cloud is an ideal destination for multi-tier web stacks where spinning
up additional VMs can help scale out the load and immediately increase capacity. For
web servers and other lightweight server functions that are not as performance-bound,
the performance of a few VMs might not be critical. However, the scale, agility, and cost
model provided by public cloud computing can also be beneficial to performance-
sensitive workloads such as the database tier; database servers tend to tax storage,
memory, and compute resources, and are fundamental building blocks to most
applications.
COMPARING DATABASE PERFORMANCE
We used a benchmarking tool to compare the performance of a SQL Server®
database configuration on the three cloud services we tested—VMware vCloud Air,
Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure.1
We began by subscribing to the three services and then setting up comparable
configurations. To make sure we were comparing apples to apples, on all three vendors
we selected an instance with SQL Server included. We used instances with eight vCPUs
and amounts of memory that were as similar as possible. (For detailed system
configuration information and test methodology, see Appendix A.)
For testing, we attached a second disk to the instance to hold the database.
Both vCloud Air and AWS allowed us to attach an SSD volume as the second disk, but
Azure did not at the time of testing. Azure does offer an SSD volume with the instance,
but it is temporary storage that is cleared during a reboot. We didn’t use this temporary
storage because we believe that typical users would not put their databases on
temporary storage.
1
Note: We performed the testing in March 2015.

The tool we used, DVD Store Version 2.1, reports database performance using a
metric of orders per minute (OPM). As Figure 1 shows, the number of OPM the vCloud
Air solution performed exceeded that of the other two cloud solutions. It delivered
1,966 more OPM than AWS, an increase of 3.9 percent. It outperformed the Microsoft
Azure solution by a whopping 48,658 OPM, achieving more than 12 times the
performance.
Figure 1: The VMware vCloud
Air solution delivered database
performance better than that
of the AWS solution and
dramatically better than that
of the Microsoft Azure
solution.
With a solution that handles more orders per minute, the applications and users
that rely on databases get their needs met more quickly, and spend less time waiting.
You can support more database operations with fewer database instances, which can
add up to savings.
WHAT WE TESTED
About VMware vCloud Air
According to VMware, “vCloud Air, built on VMware vSphere®, quickly and
seamlessly extends your data center into the cloud using the tools and processes you
already have.” It is available in three service offerings: OnDemand, Dedicated Cloud, and
the Virtual Private Cloud, and it offers two tiers of block-level storage: Standard and
SSD-Accelerated. We tested a Dedicated Cloud with SSD-Accelerated storage.
For more information about VMware vCloud Air, see
www.vmware.com/products/vcloud-hybrid-service/.
About Amazon Web Services
According to Amazon, “Amazon Web Services provides a variety of cloud-based
computing services including a wide selection of compute instances which can scale up
and down automatically to meet the needs of your application, a managed load
balancing service as well as fully managed desktops in the cloud.”

AWS offers persistent block-level storage through EBS. There are actually three
different configurations for EBS: EBS General Purpose (SSD) volumes, EBS Provisioned
IOPS (SSD) volumes, and EBS magnetic volumes. We conducted testing against the EBS
General Purpose (SSD) volumes across three virtual machine sizes and used “EBS-
Optimized” instances on the ones that supported it.
For more information about Amazon Web Services, see aws.amazon.com.
About Microsoft Azure
According to Microsoft, “Azure is an open and flexible cloud platform that
enables you to quickly build, deploy and manage applications across a global network of
Microsoft-managed datacenters. You can build applications using any language, tool or
framework. And you can integrate your public cloud applications with your existing IT
environment.”
For more information about Microsoft Azure, see azure.microsoft.com.
About our test tool, DVD Store Version 2.1
To create our real-world ecommerce workload, we used the DVD Store Version
2.1 benchmarking tool. DS2 models an online DVD store, where customers log in, search
for movies, and make purchases. DS2 reports these actions in orders per minute that
the system could handle, to show what kind of performance you could expect for your
customers. The DS2 workload also performs other actions, such as adding new
customers, to exercise the wide range of database functions you would need to run your
ecommerce environment.
For more details about the DS2 tool, see
www.delltechcenter.com/page/DVD+Store.
IN CONCLUSION
Business computing is making its way to the cloud in a dramatic fashion.
Selecting the correct cloud service provider is a pivotal decision that could have a
significant effect on how much your company benefits from this move.
In our database testing, we found that our VMware vCloud Air instance
performed dramatically better than the Azure instance, delivering more than 12 times
as many orders per minute. The vCloud Air solution also delivered 3.9 percent greater
performance than the AWS solution.
Choosing a cloud service that can deliver better database performance can
allow you to make the most of your investment in the cloud platform.

APPENDIX A – DETAILED TEST METHODOLOGY
For testing, we selected three of the default Microsoft Server 2012 R2 with SQL Server 2012 instances from AWS
and then configured similar instances with the same virtual processors and memory from VMware vCloud Air and
Microsoft Azure. Note that Azure did not offer an instance with 30 GB of memory, so we used the closest available
amount, 28 GB. For all three vendors, we used a 30GB root virtual disk and connected a second 120GB virtual disk
against which to run the database. Figure 2 shows the configurations we used.
Configuring the database
We generated the data using the Install.pl script included with DVD Store Version 2.1 (DS2), providing the
parameters for our 40GB database size and the database platform we used. We ran the Install.pl script on a utility
system running Linux® to generate the database schema.
After processing the data generation, we transferred the data files and schema creation files to a Windows-
based system running SQL Server. We built the 40GB database in SQL Server, and then performed a full backup, storing
the backup file remotely for quick access. We used that backup file to restore the database when necessary.
The only modification we made to the schema creation scripts were the specified file sizes for our database. We
explicitly set the file sizes higher than necessary to ensure that no file-growth activity would affect the outputs of the
test. Other than this file size modification, we created and loaded the database in accordance to the DVD Store
documentation. Specifically, we followed these steps:
1. We generated the data, and created the database and file structure using database creation scripts in the
DS2 download. We made size modifications specific to our 40GB database, and made the appropriate
changes to drive letters.
2. We transferred the files from our Linux data generation system to a Windows system running SQL Server.
3. We created database tables, stored procedures, and objects using the provided DVD Store scripts.
4. We set the database recovery model to bulk-logged to prevent excess logging.
5. We loaded the data we generated into the database. For data loading, we used the import wizard in SQL
Server Management Studio. Where necessary, we retained options from the original scripts, such as Enable
Identity Insert.
6. We created indices, full-text catalogs, primary keys, and foreign keys using the database-creation scripts.
7. We updated statistics on each table according to database-creation scripts, which sample 18 percent of the
table data.
8. On the SQL Server instance, we created a ds2user SQL Server login using the following Transact SQL (TSQL)
script:
USE [master]
GO
Compute instance Virtual CPU Memory (GB) Attached storage (GB)
vCloud Air 8 30 120
AWS m3.2xlarge 8 30 120
Azure D4 8 28 120
Figure 2: The three instance configurations we tested.

CREATE LOGIN [ds2user] WITH PASSWORD=N’’,
DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master],
DEFAULT_LANGUAGE=[us_english],
CHECK_EXPIRATION=OFF,
CHECK_POLICY=OFF
GO
9. We set the database recovery model back to full.
10. We created the necessary full text index using SQL Server Management Studio.
11. We created a database user, and mapped this user to the SQL Server login.
12. We then performed a full backup of the database. This backup allowed us to restore the databases to a
pristine state.
Running the DVD Store Version 2.1 tests
For the clients, we used a Microsoft Server 2012 R2 instance for each vendor and made sure it was in the same
datacenter. We created a series of batch files, SQL scripts, and shell scripts to automate the complete test cycle. DVD
Store outputs an orders-per-minute metric, which is a running average calculated through the test. In this report, we
report the last OPM reported by each client/target pair.
We used the following DVD Store parameters for testing:
ds2sqlserverdriver.exe --target=<target_IP> --ramp_rate=10 --run_time=60 --
n_threads=32 --db_size=40GB --think_time=0 --detailed_view=Y --warmup_time=5
--csv_output=<drive path>

ABOUT PRINCIPLED TECHNOLOGIES
Principled Technologies, Inc.
1007 Slater Road, Suite 300
Durham, NC, 27703
www.principledtechnologies.com
We provide industry-leading technology assessment and fact-based
marketing services. We bring to every assignment extensive experience
with and expertise in all aspects of technology testing and analysis, from
researching new technologies, to developing new methodologies, to
testing with existing and new tools.
When the assessment is complete, we know how to present the results to
a broad range of target audiences. We provide our clients with the
materials they need, from market-focused data to use in their own
collateral to custom sales aids, such as test reports, performance
assessments, and white papers. Every document reflects the results of
our trusted independent analysis.
We provide customized services that focus on our clients’ individual
requirements. Whether the technology involves hardware, software, Web
sites, or services, we offer the experience, expertise, and tools to help our
clients assess how it will fare against its competition, its performance, its
market readiness, and its quality and reliability.
Our founders, Mark L. Van Name and Bill Catchings, have worked
together in technology assessment for over 20 years. As journalists, they
published over a thousand articles on a wide array of technology subjects.
They created and led the Ziff-Davis Benchmark Operation, which
developed such industry-standard benchmarks as Ziff Davis Media’s
Winstone and WebBench. They founded and led eTesting Labs, and after
the acquisition of that company by Lionbridge Technologies were the
head and CTO of VeriTest.
Principled Technologies is a registered trademark of Principled Technologies, Inc.
All other product names are the trademarks of their respective owners.
Disclaimer of Warranties; Limitation of Liability:
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