Red Hat achieves new top virtualization performance benchmark with HP

Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions, announced that it has achieved a new record-setting SPECvirt_sc2010 virtualization performance benchmark in collaboration with long-time partner HP based on the powerful Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor and HP ProLiant systems.

The SPECvirt virtualization benchmark measures the ability of a system to host virtual machines that are running a set of typical server applications and is modeled to look like a customer’s real environment. The SPECvirt_sc2010 metric is derived from a combination of the performance of the virtualized applications, noting the number of virtual machines used in the test, and a Quality of Service (QoS) requirement.

The combination of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 and its integrated KVM hypervisor and the HP ProLiant DL980 G7 has established new leading results -- 7,424@456VMs and 76 tiles -- setting the best virtual performance mark and highest number of tiles, or set of six virtual machines running an application, of any published SPECvirt result.

“Red Hat and HP today deliver another leading performance benchmark combining our compelling technology platforms,” said Navin Thadani, senior director, Virtualization Business at Red Hat. “This SPECvirt_sc2010 benchmark result shows the scalable virtualization performance that can be achieved running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 with the powerful KVM hypervisor on HP ProLiant systems. Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM is the only virtualization solution to show scalability beyond 4 processors on SPECvirt benchmarks to date. The combination of this raw performance and scalability of KVM with the rich management features of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization brings to enterprises a truly strong virtualization solution.”

“Clients require solutions that are optimized for scalability and high performance in virtualized environments and today’s results from HP and Red Hat are highlighting just that,” said Lorraine Bartlett, vice president, worldwide marketing and strategy, Business Critical Systems at HP. “Achieving the highest overall 4 and 8 processor results to date in the SPECvirt_sc2010 benchmark demonstrates scalability across our product family.”