“Amazon Zocalo is a fully managed, secure enterprise storage and sharing service with strong administrative controls and feedback capabilities that improve user productivity. Users can comment on files, send them to others for feedback, and upload new versions without having to resort to emailing multiple versions of their files as attachments. Users can take advantage of these capabilities wherever they are, using the device of their choice, including PCs, Macs, and tablets. Amazon Zocalo offers IT administrators the option of integrating with existing corporate directories, flexible sharing policies, audit logs, and control of the location where data is stored.”
They are offering a free trial for 30 days, 200 GB and 50 users.
Features include
Single console for all files
Commenting on files
Sending files to others for feedback
Uploading new versions without emailing files as attachments
Teammates can leave comments by highlighting a section of a file, or specific text, and typing feedback
Users can set optional deadlines for feedback
Track files that are out for review
Be notified by email when they have been asked to provide feedback
Automatic version control
Overlay technology that displays all comments from all users
Jason Read at CloudHarmony does a great job sorting through all of the different cloud computer offerings by vendors and then compares their performance in a like-to-like benchmark. This is no small task and most reports I have read comparing cloud compute do not do a good enough job of comparing similar services when conducting their performance tests. You can obtain a copy of the full report from here which is 100+ pages long.
Below are some the test results along with my own comments as well.
In the web server test Amazon EC2 was a little better than the rest of the competition. And in the database server test Rackspace was slightly better until the testing of large database servers where Azure’s new A9 server won out.
Web Server CPU Performance Test
Database Server CPU Performance Test
Web Server CPU Performance Variability Test
Database Server CPU Performance Variability Test
Also included in this test was CPU variability. In these multi-tenant, shared resource environments the performance over time can be a risk to a customers if that is the case this test should be taken into consideration as well as the other variable tests included in the report. For this test the lower the score the better, ideally you want the same performance over the life of the service.
In both tests Amazon had the best overall score across all server types. The changing CPU types as testing across different server types should be considered when looking at these two scores as well.
Disk Performance Testing
In these tests Amazon EC2 and Rackspace were consistently faster and more reliable. Since they are SSD based storage they should be faster and more consistent than the other services. DigitalOcean is also SSD based but their performance was not on par with the other SSD based services and also had the highest rate of variability. SoftLayer is not SSD based but their overall disk performance and consistency were very good. This could be from using SSD caching but no matter how they are doing it the performance speaks for itself. Microsoft Azure and Google do not offer SSD storage which is reflected in their testing.
Web Server Tests
Small Web Server Random Reads Test
Small Web Server Sequential Reads Test
Small Web Server Random Reads Variability Test
Small Web Server Sequential Reads Variability Test
Small Database Server Random Read Writes Test
Small Database Server Sequential Read Writes Test
Small Database Server Random Read Writes Variability Test
Small Database Server Sequential Read Writes Variability Test
Medium Web Server Random Reads Test
Medium Web Server Sequential Reads Test
Medium Web Server Random Reads Variability Test
Medium Web Server Sequential Reads Variability Test
Medium Database Server Random Read Writes Test
Medium Database Server Sequential Read Writes Test
Medium Database Server Random Read Writes Variability Test
Medium Database Server Sequential Read Writes Variability Test
Large Web Server Random Reads Test
Large Web Server Sequential Reads Test
Large Web Server Random Reads Variability Test
Large Web Server Sequential Reads Variability Test
Large Database Server Random Read Writes Test
Large Database Server Sequential Read Writes Test
Large Database Server Random Read Writes Variability Test
Large Database Server Sequential Read Writes Variability Test
Memory Performance
In these test they conduct them only on the database servers and because of Azure’s older hardware based on AMD CPU and MOBO they did not perform well until the large database server test where they are using the newer Intel Sandy Bridge based platform. Amazon and Google both perform well through all testing and outperformed the others. Newer hardware is always going to win in these types of tests and that is reflected here.
Small Database Server Memory Test
Medium Database Server Memory Test
Large Database Server Memory Test
External and Internal Network Performance
Network testing is always subjective and by testing cloud service providers networking throughput it just adds to the complexity of the configuration as some add additional ways to improve performance through different setups. Amazon, Google and Rackspace seem to provide higher throughput then Microsoft Azure, DigitalOcean and Softlayer. Also throughput by some vendors is limited depending on the size of the compute instance your purchase.
Uplink – Internal Network Throughput
Downlink – Internal Network Throughput
Internal Network Latency
External Network Latency
They also cover the value of each provider in their report which ultimately should be the deciding factor in choosing which cloud computing provider to use for your solution. After all there is no need to overspend on a service if you can accomplish everything you need with a cheaper solution.
