More updates coming in from the Oracle Open World conference this week in San Francisco...I had the opportunity to catch Intel's CEO, Paul Ottelini during his keynote on Tuesday. There are a few segments from the keynote that really caught my eye, but this piece was the coolest for me...Check it out:

Good news for the enterprise - the latest "Tick" of Intel's "Tick Tock Model" has made its way to the high-end 4 socket segment and the energy efficiency improvements are sure to make an IT manager smile.

With the launch of Intel® Xeon® Processor 7400 series, the entire Intel® Xeon Processor product line is now using 45nm process technology, hafnium based hi-k dielectrics, metal gates and enhanced Intel Core Microarchitecture. The results are just what you have come to expect - improved energy efficient performance because of higher performance delivered by more cores and processor architecture improvements using faster, lower leakagetransistors.

What does this really mean to you?

• Do you need better performance? How does up to a 50% improvement over previous generation Intel® Xeon® 7300 processors sound?

• Is power a concern? A server configured with Intel® Xeon® 7400 Processors consumes ~equal or less power than the previous processor generation.

• Combined, the performance and power improvements deliver up to a 54% improvement in energy efficiency.

• Given the breadth of Intel® Xeon® 7400 Processor choices - from 6 core 2.66GHz (130W TDP) processors down to 2.13GHz (50W) 4-Core to the 2.13GHz (65W) 6-Core that is the lowest power per-core processor on the market, you can choose the right processor to deliver the balance of performance and power that meets your compute needs.

In summary, with the Intel® Xeon® 7400 Processors, you can deploy the same number of servers in your data center while increasing your performance capacity or deploy fewer servers to complete the same amount of work while reducing power consumption. Using the best energy efficiency servers is a great first step toward increasing the efficiency and performance of your datacenter - look for a follow on blog later this week from Dave Hill to talk about other actions that you can take to reduce your power consumption and carbon footprint too.

"Live From" Oracle Open World and the Intel Innovation Zone...first impression...this is a big event. The Moscone Center here in San Francisco is rocking and Intel has some really interesting and cool demos inside the Innovation Zone. Check out this one where Intel is announcing a new Solid State Drive and demos it at the show:

Check back for more demos and show updates...

Here's the 6th follow-up post in my 10 Habits of Great Server Performance Tuners series. This one focuses on the sixth habit: Try 1 Thing at a Time.

Like habit 2, Start at the Top, this habit looks easy to understand and to keep. But, due to the constant desire for productivity, I and most others I know in the performance community have broken it many times. Some times I even get away with it. But trying to keep this habit is important, because when I don't get away with it, breaking this rule results in even more work than I was trying to save.

The concept behind this habit is simple - when you are optimizing your platform or your code, make only one change at a time. This allows you to measure the effect of each change, and only accumulate the positive changes (however small) into your workload. I have seen instances, for example, where 2 small changes applied at the same time to a workload cancelled each other out: one caused a small in performance and the other a small increase. If these changes weren't tested individually, we would have missed out on that performance gain.

Another thing that can happen in a complex workload is that two changes that seem independent can interact with each other. Like many developers know from fixing bugs, changing one thing may affect something else. Keeping all your changes separate can help you identify these interactions more easily.

You may be wondering when it is acceptable to break this habit. I think of performance methodology, and this rule in particular, as similar to the scientific method we learned in school. It's always good to follow it - doing so will help you quantify your successes and failures, stay organized, and defend your conclusions - but, you can still make a big breakthrough without it. In some cases, like when you are making small local changes to source code in completely different modules, or when you are changing two things you are certain won't interact, the habit can be broken. But the advice I give, especially to those involved in long-term optimization projects, is to follow it.

What has your experience been? Please share your "changing multiple things at one time" stories.

Keep watching The Server Room for information on the other 4 habits in the coming weeks.

Intel's launch of Xeon 7400 processors this week marked yet another great product from Intel that simply delivers to basic virtualization infrastructure need of a datacenter. In my view, what sets Intel apart is the consistency with which Intel has been providing the hardware capabilities essential for virtualization adoption and acceleration. These hardware capabilities have delivered incremental power efficient performance for virtualization and platform wide solution that makes virtualization adoption efficient.

Just drawing a year back Xeon 7300 processors based platforms when launched set industry leading performance results for virtualization for 4 Socket mainstream servers. Now, Xeon 7400 series processor with six cores and built on energy efficient 45nm technology, provides the industry best performance for virtualization for 4 Socket mainstream servers. On VMware's VMmark, Xeon 7400 scaled up the performance (over best published Xeon 7300 score) by appx 35% (http://www.vmware.com/products/vmmark/results.html). On Hyper-v with vConsolidate virtualization benchmark Xeon 7400 delivered 40% better performance and 52% better performance per watt (over Xeon 7300) as published at http://www.principledtechnologies.com/Clients/Reports/Intel/vConHV2Sys0908.pdf. This performance trend is fairly similar to how 45nm Quad Core Xeon 5400 (launched Q4 '07) delivered up to 20% performance over Quad Core Xeon 5300 (launched Q4 '06) in 2 Socket space. The key to IT managers from my view point are not just these statistics in performance but also the ability to get these performance increments on a predictive cadence with in the same power envelope. Socket based virtualization software means better TCO as well.

In the same vein of performance I mentioned platform solutions for efficient deployment as the key element of these hardware capabilities. Now efficient deployments of virtualization and emerging usage models of virtualization require performance and some more... what I refer as capabilities. But why?. It requires some simple understanding.

New emerging usage models of virtualization beyond consolidation, referred as virtualization 2.0, like load balancing, high availability and disaster recovery (HA/DR) require resource pooling. Once these resource pools are architected within the datacenter the IT managers do not typically want to change them just because they want to add new generation of servers to the resource pool (and retire a few older ones). To support this requirement Intel delivered a new capability called Intel VT FlexMigration (Intel VT FlexMigration). With appropriate software support like Enhanced VMotion in VMware ESX 3.5 update 2, IT managers can simply roll in a Xeon 7400 processor based server with Core Microarchitecture based previous generation servers (like Xeon 5300, 5100, 7300 series processors) already in a resource pool.

Another requirement for efficiency in highly utilized servers as in the case of large consolidation or load balancing is robust and efficient networking solution that supports the increased processing capability. Load balancing and HA/DR usage model in particular rely on VM's moving over the network. Efficient networking solution means efficient virtualization 2.0 usage model deployment. Intel networking adapters that can be used on even the Xeon 7400 based servers has a feature known as VMDq, which can accelerate the networking performance. On a 10GbE NIC using ESX 3.5 update 1 software, VMDq delivered >2x the improvement in throughput, which means higher performance and also VMDq being a hardware assist reduces the VMM overhead relieving the CPU cycles for applications to run more than VMM. New Ethernet adapters also add QoS capabilities like bandwidth allocation that could provide even better control in terms of latency and traffic.

Finally the virtualization 2.0 usage models rely heavily on centralized storage. Becoz when VM is moved from one physical server to another server in the resource pool, if the entire resource pool had a ubiquitous view of the data a VM was using, then the transition and resuming of VM on any server in the pool would be fast and seamless. Hence cost effective centralized storage connectivity would be very desirable for these virtualization 2.0 usage models. Intel hence has been a leading force in working with industry standards to make Ethernet robust and developing Fiber Channel over Ethernet standards and products that can carry both SAN and LAN traffic on the same fabric.

Collectively, all these highlight how Intel is showcasing leadership in products that matter to both consolidation and usage models of virtualization 2.0 beyond consolidation.

Each year for the last 10 years, the innovators of VMWare, have hosted a users and partner conference to discuss virtualization technologies, ideas and services for the IT industry. This years event, in Las Vegas, brought together over 14,000 of the world's foremost thought leaders, developers and users from around the world. As the "Virtualization World" converged on Las Vegas their was a prevailing forecast that has begun to permeate our virtualization landscape: Cloud Computing. Paul Maritz, in his initial keynote address as CEO of VMWare, outlined the importance Cloud computing and the role that VMWare and their customers will play in defining the Enterprise Computing "forecast" over the next several years. It was a thoughtful direction for the world's leading innovator in virtualization software technology. I personally found it rather gratifying to see Mr. Maritz thoughtful demeanor and acknowledgement of the VMWare Co-Founders Diane Greene and Mendel Rosenblum, role in shaping this new direction. His understated prose also failed to acknowledge the role he himself has played over the years in establishing this direction.....it also clearly placed in my mind why he may be the ideal leader to help us realize the forecast for cloud-based compute models.

So what does it all mean? Cloudy forecasts are always difficult to predict and predictions can become self-fulfilling prophecies or embarassing missteps. What is clear, in my opinion, is that Cloud computing will drive meaningful change across a wide range of industries in rapid succession.

Let me explain the logic: Organizing and managing compute, network and application usage models has been a very elusive endeavor for many years. IT departments cannot always predict application load, network requirements and storage availability. If you provision for the worst (or highest use) case scenario you often over build. In other cases, application popularity or changing business conditions create under capacity and infrastructure failure. Those of us who have launched Application Service Provisioning infrastructures bear the scars of failures, excitement of success and hope for the future. VMWare, Microsoft, EMC, Google, Amazon and many others have made a concerted effort to "get it right" this time. Cloud infrastructures using virtualization technologies are providing a opportunistic ways for developers and end users to test scalability theories of traditional client/server compute models. These same "Clouds" are providing internal cost reduced resource infrastructures to make available vast computing, network and application resources for everyday usage with relatively low entry points (a la Amazon's EC2). However, determining which part of the "Cloud" to make available for public vs. internal consumption will be defined by innovative new technologies that have yet to be announced. Interoperability, compatibility, performance and scalability are all design points which the industry must consider.

Visionaries in this space abound: Vin Cerf (deserves more credit than he is given), Ray Ozzie, Reuven Cohen (you may not of heard of him yet), Alan Gin, Marc Benioff, Ed Bugnion, K.B. Chandrasekhar, Pete Manca and many others have been working diligently for years behind the scenes to make the promise of Cloud computing real. Industries such as Big Pharma, Telecom, Financial Services and Oil & Gas will reap tremendous benefit from well defined industry "clouds". The role of ethernet will be a critical design point for these next generation infrastructures as 10Gbe+ reduces latency, response times and delivers application QoS. At Intel, we are very proud of our engineering and process manufacturing prowess for the development of multi-core compute technologies, rightfully so in my opinion, but the future of the "Cloud" will challenge us to re-examine our design methodology, increase our price-performance-per watt cadence and deliver exciting new innovations throughout our server/client platforms.

Virtualization innovation has provided a "sliver lining" for today's Cloud infrastructures. Where there is transitions or inflection points in the technology industry, there is opportunity. At VMWorld 2008, the virtualization industry has begun the process of delivering technologies in a world beyond the hypervisor. Virtualization 2.0 as outlined by Doug Fisher, Intel VP of Software and Solutions Group and Steve Herrod, CTO of VMWare is a step towards providing the innovation required to make Cloud infrastructures real. The next steps, the new pioneers ( a la Simon Crosby of Citrix) are building tools which provide increased ROI in decreased cycle times for IT managers. The future of the IT cloud is in their capable hands and in the hands of the IT innovators within each company focused on providing compute infrastructures designed to scale (and shrink) with the businesses we serve. VMWorld has yet to disappoint, in 2008, VMWorld reminds us that even on a "Cloudy" day there is a chance for change.

Here's a short video talking to Dave Martin of VMware around VT Flex Migration....

Day 1: I'm live from VMWorld this week experiencing the virtualization event of the year. I'll be updating this blog with happenings from the Intel booth and around the show floor. Some really cool video interviews with Intel Partners who are making a big impact in the virtualization world and giving IT managers real advantages over previous generation solutions. Here's a video showing the XEON 7400 near perfect scalability from 8 to 24 to 48 cores. Wow, 48 cores, that's cool!

If you liked the first video, check out this one where Jon Markee is talking about Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) and how flex priority improves performance and reduces boot time in your virtualized environment.

Day 2: Here's another video from the Intel Booth showing more examples of Intel Virtualization technology.

Virtualization is the big thing, everybody is doing it - just read the in-flight magazine to see why you should be virtualizing your data center... While it is true that Virtually everyone in the fortune 500 has begun to virtualize their data center, it is also true that most servers are still not virtualized.

i.e. The data center landscape is still mostly an opportunity. The software is mature, there are multiple viable solutions, but there are still many questions about how "best" to proceed.

As an enterprise engineer working with enterprise customers, I am inevitably asked where the sweet spot is. The reality is, there isn't one. Or "It Depends". In general larger ( 4 socket servers) provide an edge in efficiency as there are more shared components - board, memory, power supplies, etc. Large servers can also provide more head room if most of your VMs are low utilization, but any of them can spike way up. The launch of Intel's six core Xeon 7400 series based servers ( and their record breaking virtualization performance) have added to the interest - is it time to go big?

What does it depend on?

• How big are your VMs? Machines today are quite powerful. We have seen a 10X growth in compute capacity in just the last 6 years. The application that filled 37% of your 2003 vintage server won't even make a dent in a modern Xeon based server. i.e. Most VMs are much smaller than your server 2 socket or 4 socket. There are still tasks - like decision support that scale as big as your machine will go, but with average enterprise utilization down around 12% ( on old hardware) most physical machines fit tidily inside a VM.

• How spiky are your VMs ( in resource demand - compute, memory, network)? By doing some resource profiling, you can understand where your servers fit best.

• How many VMs do you want on each PM(physical machine)? You can put more on 4 socket hardware ( efficiency) but have greater redundancy on a bunch of 2 socket hardware ( depth).

Fortunately you do not have to solve this linear programming problem before you start. In reality the tools are making it easier you solve. Using your favorite VMM manager (choosing this is another discussion). With Intel's VT Flex Migration Technology you can pool together 1, 2, 4 socket current and future generation Xeon platforms and move the workloads ( automatically, or manually) to optimize your resource utilization.