Benchmark Setup
All benchmarked cloud servers were configured almost identically using CentOS 64-bit (or 32-bit in the case of EC2 m1.small, c1.medium, Gandi, and IBM cloud servers).
Benchmark Methodology
Individual benchmark scores are calculated using the Phoronix Test Suite. Phoronix runs each test 3 times or until the standard deviation between each execution is less than 3.5% to improve statistical accuracy.
We chose to use a dedicated, bare-metal cloud server as the performance baseline for this post. This will provide a more readily comparable reference to non-cloud configurations. The server we chose as the baseline is the NewServers Jumbo server configured with dual Intel E5504 quad core 2.00 GHz processors and 48GB DDR3 ECC ram. We chose NewServers because they are the only IaaS cloud that does not utilize a virtualization layer that could adversely affect the benchmark results. All NewServers servers run on top of physical hardware. We assigned the baseline server a score of 100. All other servers were assigned a score proportional to the performance of that server, where greater than 100 represents better results and less than 100 represents poorer results. For example, a server with a score of 50 scored 50% lower than the baseline server overall, while a server with a score of 125, scored 25% higher.
To compute the score, the results from each of the 7 benchmarks on the baseline server are compared to the same benchmark results for a cloud server. The baseline server benchmark score represents 100% for each benchmark. If a cloud server scores higher than the baseline it receives a score higher than 100% (based on how much higher the score is) and vise-versa for a lower score.
Benchmarks
The following benchmarks were used to calculate the aggregate encoding performance (Encode) score displayed in the results tables below.
- Monkey Audio Encoding [weight=100]: This test times how long it takes to encode a sample WAV file to APE format.
- WAV To FLAC [weight=100]: This test times how long it takes to encode a sample WAV file to FLAC format.
- WAV To MP3 [weight=100]: LAME is an MP3 encoder licensed under the LGPL. This test measures the time required to encode a WAV file to MP3 format.
- WAV To Ogg [weight=100]: This test times how long it takes to encode a sample WAV file to Ogg format.
- WAV To WavPack [weight=100]: This test times how long it takes to encode a sample WAV file to WavPack format.
- FFmpeg AVI to NTSC VCD [weight=100]: This test uses FFmpeg for testing the systems audio/video encoding performance.
- GnuPG [weight=100]: This test times how long it takes to encrypt a 2GB file using GnuPG of a file.
Results
The results are divided into tables separated by provider. If the provider has more than one data center location, multiple tables are included for each location. Each table shows the server identifier, CPU architecture, memory (GB), and the aggregate baseline relative score (as described above) linked to the complete Phoronix results. On the high end, there wasn't as much performance variation between providers in this post when compared to the previous 4 performance posts. Additionally, the results show that these benchmarks appear to be most influenced by CPU model and clock speed versus number of CPUs/cores. The top performers in this post are NewServers, GoGrid and Bluelock.
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) [US East] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| us-east.m2.2xlarge | Xeon X5550 2.67 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 34.2 | 136.32 |
| us-east.m2.4xlarge | Xeon X5550 2.67 [8 processors, 8 cores] | 68.4 | 136.12 |
| us-east.m2.xlarge | Xeon X5550 2.67 [2 processors, 2 cores] | 17.1 | 135.81 |
| us-east.c1.xlarge | Xeon E5410 2.33 [8 processors, 8 cores] | 7 | 119.77 |
| us-east.m1.xlarge | Xeon E5430 2.66 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 15 | 103.33 |
| us-east.m1.large | Xeon E5430 2.66 [2 processors, 2 cores] | 7.5 | 103.06 |
| us-east.c1.medium | Xeon E5410 2.33 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 1.7 | 101.56 |
| us-east.m1.small | Opteron 2218 HE 2.60 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1.7 | 43.25 |
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) [US West] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| us-west.m2.2xlarge | Xeon X5550 2.67 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 34.2 | 136.29 |
| us-west.m2.4xlarge | Xeon X5550 2.67 [8 processors, 8 cores] | 68.4 | 136.27 |
| us-west.m2.xlarge | Xeon X5550 2.67 [2 processors, 2 cores] | 17.1 | 135.86 |
| us-west.c1.xlarge | Xeon E5410 2.33 [8 processors, 8 cores] | 7 | 119.77 |
| us-west.m1.xlarge | Xeon E5430 2.67 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 15 | 103.9 |
| us-west.m1.large | Xeon E5430 2.66 [2 processors, 2 cores] | 7.5 | 103.28 |
| us-west.c1.medium | Xeon E5410 2.33 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 1.7 | 100.89 |
| us-west.m1.small | Xeon E5430 2.66 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1.7 | 45.2 |
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) [EU West] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| eu-west.m2.4xlarge | Xeon X5550 2.67 [8 processors, 8 cores] | 68.4 | 136.4 |
| eu-west.m2.2xlarge | Xeon X5550 2.67 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 34.2 | 136.21 |
| eu-west.m2.xlarge | Xeon X5550 2.67 [2 processors, 2 cores] | 17.1 | 136.12 |
| eu-west.c1.xlarge | Xeon E5410 2.33 [8 processors, 8 cores] | 7 | 119.69 |
| eu-west.m1.xlarge | Xeon E5430 2.67 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 15 | 103.83 |
| eu-west.m1.large | Xeon E5430 2.67 [2 processors, 2 cores] | 7.5 | 103.79 |
| eu-west.c1.medium | Xeon E5410 2.33 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 1.7 | 101.28 |
| eu-west.m1.small | Xeon E5430 2.66 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1.7 | 44.92 |
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) [APAC] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| apac.m2.2xlarge | Xeon X5550 2.67 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 34.2 | 136.12 |
| apac.m2.4xlarge | Xeon X5550 2.67 [8 processors, 8 cores] | 68.4 | 135.83 |
| apac.m2.xlarge | Xeon X5550 2.67 [2 processors, 2 cores] | 17.1 | 135.49 |
| apac.c1.xlarge | Xeon E5410 2.33 [8 processors, 8 cores] | 7 | 119.54 |
| apac.m1.large | Xeon E5430 2.67 [2 processors, 2 cores] | 7.5 | 103.8 |
| apac.m1.xlarge | Xeon E5430 2.67 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 15 | 103.68 |
| apac.c1.medium | Xeon E5410 2.33 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 1.7 | 101.32 |
| apac.m1.small | Xeon E5430 2.67 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1.7 | 45.45 |
| Rackspace Cloud [Dallas] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 16gb | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 16 | 111.2 |
| 2gb | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 2 | 108.98 |
| 1gb | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 1 | 108.25 |
| 4gb | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 4 | 106.02 |
| Rackspace Cloud [Chicago] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 16gb-il | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 16 | 112.44 |
| 8gb-il | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 8 | 112.44 |
| 4gb-il | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 4 | 111.58 |
| 1gb-il | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 1 | 108.5 |
| 2gb-il | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 2 | 107.61 |
| Storm on Demand [MI, US] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 48gb | Xeon X5650 2.67 [1 processor, 12 cores] | 45.9 | 135.59 |
| i5-750-4gb | Core i5 750 2.67 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 4 | 130.83 |
| 4gb | Core i5 750 2.67 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 3.5 | 130 |
| i5-750-2gb | Core i5 750 2.67 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 2 | 128.51 |
| 2gb | Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1.7 | 124.27 |
| 8gb | Xeon X3440 2.53 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 7 | 123.64 |
| x3440-8gb | Xeon X3440 2.53 [1 processor, 8 cores] | 8 | 123.4 |
| 16gb | Opteron 2378 2.40 [2 processors, 4 cores] | 15.2 | 121.05 |
| 32gb | Opteron 2378 2.40 [4 processors, 8 cores] | 30.4 | 120.76 |
| e5506x2-4gb | Xeon E5506 2.13 [1 processor, 8 cores] | 8 | 108.32 |
| e5506x2-4gb | Xeon E5506 2.13 [1 processor, 8 cores] | 8 | 108.31 |
| e5506x2-8gb | Xeon E5506 2.13 [1 processor, 8 cores] | 8 | 108.1 |
| e5506x2-8gb | Xeon E5506 2.13 [1 processor, 8 cores] | 8 | 107.75 |
| amd2350x2-32gb | Opteron 2350 2.00 [4 processors, 8 cores] | 32 | 95.23 |
| GoGrid [US West] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 8gb | Xeon E5450 2.99 [1 processor, 6 cores] | 8 | 146.51 |
| 4gb | Xeon E5520 2.27 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 4 | 108.36 |
| 1gb | Xeon E5520 2.27 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1 | 104.3 |
| 2gb | Xeon E5520 2.27 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 2 | 103.78 |
| Voxel [New York] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 4gb-ny | Xeon L5520 2.26 [2 processors, 2 cores] | 4 | 119.95 |
| 8gb-ny | Xeon L5520 2.26 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 8 | 118.91 |
| 14gb-ny | Xeon L5520 2.26 [7 processors, 7 cores] | 14 | 118.79 |
| 2gb-ny | Xeon L5520 2.26 [1 processor, 1 core] | 2 | 106.67 |
| Voxel [Amsterdam] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 8gb-nl | Xeon L5520 2.26 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 8 | 122.62 |
| 14gb-nl | Xeon L5520 2.26 [7 processors, 7 cores] | 14 | 122.6 |
| 4gb-nl | Xeon L5520 2.26 [2 processors, 2 cores] | 4 | 122.58 |
| 2gb-nl | Xeon L5520 2.26 [1 processor, 1 core] | 2 | 114.22 |
| Voxel [Singapore] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 14gb-sg | Xeon L5520 2.26 [7 processors, 7 cores] | 14 | 115.9 |
| 8gb-sg | Xeon L5520 2.26 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 8 | 115.83 |
| 4gb-sg | Xeon L5520 2.26 [2 processors, 2 cores] | 4 | 115.8 |
| 2gb-sg | Xeon L5520 2.26 [1 processor, 1 core] | 2 | 112.29 |
| NewServers [Miami] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| fast | Xeon E5450 2.99 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 4 | 152.43 |
| large | Xeon E5405 2.00 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 4 | 101.06 |
| jumbo | Xeon E5504 2.00 [2 processors, 8 cores] | 48 | 100 |
| med | Xeon 3.20 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 2 | 94.28 |
| small | Xeon 2.80 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1 | 81.55 |
| Linode VPS Hosting [Atlanta] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 5760-atlanta | Xeon L5520 2.27 [2 processors, 4 cores] | 5.54 | 115.71 |
| 14400-atlanta | Xeon L5520 2.27 [2 processors, 4 cores] | 14.06 | 115.66 |
| 8640-atlanta | Xeon L5520 2.27 [2 processors, 4 cores] | 8.45 | 108.25 |
| 1080-atlanta | Xeon L5520 2.27 [2 processors, 4 cores] | 1.05 | 108.05 |
| 2880-atlanta | Xeon L5520 2.27 [2 processors, 4 cores] | 2.81 | 106.65 |
| SoftLayer [Dallas] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 1gb-dallas | Xeon X3460 2.80 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1 | 126.76 |
| 4gb-dallas | Xeon E5520 2.27 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 4 | 111.51 |
| 8gb-dallas | Xeon E5520 2.27 [8 processors, 8 cores] | 8 | 111.28 |
| 2gb-dallas | Xeon X3460 2.80 [2 processors, 2 cores] | 2 | 96.74 |
| SoftLayer [WDC] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 4gb-wdc | Xeon X3460 2.80 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 4 | 137.71 |
| 1gb-wdc | Xeon X3460 2.80 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1 | 131.49 |
| 2gb-wdc | Xeon X3460 2.80 [2 processors, 2 cores] | 2 | 129.06 |
| 8gb-wdc | Xeon E5520 2.27 [8 processors, 8 cores] | 8 | 116.04 |
| SoftLayer [Seattle] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 4gb-seattle | Xeon X3460 2.80 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 4 | 131.51 |
| 1gb-seattle | Xeon X3460 2.80 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1 | 122.06 |
| 2gb-seattle | Xeon X3460 2.80 [2 processors, 2 cores] | 2 | 117.75 |
| 8gb-seattle | Xeon E5520 2.27 [8 processors, 8 cores] | 8 | 111.14 |
| Terremark vCloud Express [Miami] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 1gb | Opteron 8389 2.91 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1 | 138.13 |
| 2gb | Opteron 8389 2.91 [1 processor, 1 core] | 2 | 131.27 |
| 4gb-2vpu | Opteron 8389 2.91 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 4 | 128.26 |
| 8gb-4vpu | Opteron 8389 2.91 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 8 | 105.19 |
| 16gb-8vpu | Opteron 8389 2.91 [1 processor, 8 cores] | 16 | 95.25 |
| VPS.NET [Atlanta] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 18node-atl | Xeon E5520 2.27 [7 processors, 7 cores] | 6.6 | 106.3 |
| 12node-atl | Xeon E5520 2.27 [5 processors, 5 cores] | 4.4 | 102.46 |
| 6node-atl | Xeon E5520 2.27 [3 processors, 3 cores] | 2.2 | 94.66 |
| 3node-atl | Xeon E5520 2.27 [2 processors, 2 cores] | 1.1 | 89.67 |
| OpSource Cloud [VA, US] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 1gb | Xeon X7460 2.66 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1 | 72.27 |
| 4gb-2cpu | Xeon X7460 2.66 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 4 | 70.06 |
| 2gb | Xeon X7460 2.66 [1 processor, 1 core] | 2 | 68.77 |
| 16gb-4cpu | Xeon X7460 2.66 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 16 | 63.81 |
| 8gb-4cpu | Xeon X7460 2.66 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 8 | 62.54 |
| 32gb-4cpu | Xeon X7460 2.66 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 32 | 61.01 |
| Speedyrails [Quebec] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 4gb | Xeon E5520 2.27 [2 processors, 8 cores] | 4 | 113.13 |
| 1gb | Xeon E5520 2.27 [2 processors, 8 cores] | 1 | 111.37 |
| 2gb | Xeon E5520 2.27 [2 processors, 8 cores] | 2 | 106.45 |
| Zerigo [CO, US] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 4gb | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [2 processors, 4 cores] | 4 | 110.53 |
| 2gb | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 2 | 109.61 |
| 1gb | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 1 | 108.97 |
| ReliaCloud [MN, US] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 4gb | Xeon E5504 2.00 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 4 | 38.95 |
| 8gb | 8 | 38.81 | |
| 2gb | Xeon E5504 4.40 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 2 | 35.2 |
| 1gb | Xeon E5504 2.00 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1 | 24.15 |
| Gandi.net [France] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 6gb | Xeon L5640 2.27GHz 2.26 [1 processor, 6 cores] | 6 | 125.01 |
| 4gb | Opteron 8346 HE 1.79 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 4 | 72.22 |
| 1gb | Opteron 8346 HE 1.79 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1 | 70.61 |
| 2gb | Opteron 8346 HE 1.79 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 2 | 67.37 |
| CloudSigma [Switzerland] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 8gb-8gh | Six-Core Opteron 2427 2.21 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 8 | 111.01 |
| 16gb-16gh | Six-Core Opteron 2427 2.21 [1 processor, 8 cores] | 16 | 110.75 |
| 4gb-4gh | Six-Core Opteron 2427 2.21 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 4 | 110.19 |
| 32gb-20gh | Six-Core Opteron 2427 2.21 [1 processor, 8 cores] | 32 | 109.59 |
| 1gb-2gh | Six-Core Opteron 2427 2.21 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1 | 95.24 |
| 2gb-2gh | Six-Core Opteron 2427 2.21 [1 processor, 1 core] | 2 | 91.15 |
| IBM Development & Test Cloud [NY, US] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| dev-large | Xeon X5570 2.93 [1 processor, 8 cores] | 3.5 | 126.89 |
| dev-med | Xeon X5570 2.93 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 1.75 | 98.55 |
| BlueLock [IN, US] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 8gb-4cpu | Xeon X5550 2.67 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 8 | 142.31 |
| 4gb-2cpu | Xeon X5550 2.67 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 4 | 133.29 |
| 16gb-8cpu | Xeon X5550 2.67 [1 processor, 8 cores] | 16 | 130.11 |
| 2gb | Xeon X5550 2.67 [1 processor, 1 core] | 2 | 119.57 |
| 1gb | Xeon X5550 2.67 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1 | 113.3 |
| Cloud Central [Australia] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| huge | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 16 | 112.23 |
| reg | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 4 | 112.1 |
| large | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 8 | 111.82 |
| med | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 2 | 103.44 |
| small | Opteron 2374 HE 2.20 [4 processors, 4 cores] | 1 | 100.05 |
| RimuHosting [Dallas] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| tx-2gb | Xeon E5506 2.13 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 2 | 101.27 |
| RimuHosting [Auckland] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| nz-2gb | Xeon E5506 2.13 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 2 | 105.98 |
| ElasticHosts [Peer1 UK] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 8gb-20gh | Xeon E5420 2.50 [1 processor, 6 cores] | 8 | 124.54 |
| 1gb-2gh | Xeon E5420 2.50 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1 | 118.62 |
| 4gb-8gh | Xeon E5420 2.50 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 4 | 118 |
| 2gb-4gh | Xeon E5420 2.50 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 2 | 113.55 |
| Flexiscale [UK] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ID | CPU | Memory | Encode |
| 4gb | Dual-Core Opteron 8220 2.80 [1 processor, 2 cores] | 4 | 126.58 |
| 8gb | Opteron 8218 2.62 [1 processor, 4 cores] | 8 | 115.72 |
| 2gb | Opteron 8218 2.60 [1 processor, 1 core] | 2 | 109.76 |
| 1gb | Opteron 8218 2.60 [1 processor, 1 core] | 1 | 105.06 |
