Formulus Black: SQL Performance Records in Benchmark Testings

Formulus Black Corporation engaged independent software consultancy End Point Corporation to benchmark the performance of SQL Server when running in bare metal and virtualized environments on a single mid-range server with lower cost Intel Corp.‘s Silver 4114 CPUs (20 physical cores and 40 hyper-threaded), 768GB of memory, and Forsa installed.

Compared to a similar solution that did not use the Forsa software, the Forsa-based solution tested by End Point produced 129x better transactions per minute and latency results.

“Because Forsa allows all data to persist in-memory all the time, applications, especially databases, can take advantage of the massively parallel processing capabilities of the memory channel and deliver levels of performance that cannot be achieved when data is stored in traditional mediums like SSDs, HDDs or over a SAN,” said Josh Williams, database specialist, End Point.

The company’s Forsa software increases cost effectiveness, processing speed and memory capacity without application changes, compression, encryption or added peripherals. The software stack is a first to keep complete system images and data persistent in memory while safeguarded against power loss. By identifying and encoding data patterns using algorithms, the software enables larger data sets to occupy a smaller footprint in memory while also providing complete system backup and restore in minutes instead of hours or days.

“There’s an old saying about how the ‘proof is in the pudding’ but we like to think that the proof is in the testing,” said Wayne Rickard, chief strategy and marketing officer. “It’s one thing for us to say that our numbers against competitive offerings are better but it’s another thing when independent analysis comes to the same conclusion. Testing Forsa’s ability to achieve significant performance levels in SQL environments on a single mid-range server without tuning, shows that it is unmatchable by any SSD or other I/O-bound technology today.“

Testing environment and detailed results are available in the End Point solutions brief (registration required)