Pay per VPU Application Development

So-called "Cloud Computing" (aka Cluster Computing, aka Grids, aka Utility Computing, etc.) is even making the morning news these days, where it is being presented as having a supercomputer with virtual processor units just a click away on your home PC. I don't know too many home PC users who need a supercomputer, but even if they did and it was readily available, how competitive would it be given the plummeting cost of multicores for PCs?

Overview of Virtualization Performance

As the Guest Editor for this month's MeasureIT e-zine on the topic of virtualization, a compliation of articles is presented from both earlier MeasureIT authors as well as some papers from the CMG conference proceedings. Titles include:

• Visualizing Virtualization


• It May Be Virtual - But the Overhead is Not


• A Realistic Assessment of the Performance of Windows Guest Virtual Machines


• Measuring CPU Time from Hyper-Threading Enabled Intel Processors


• Hyperthreading - Two for the Price of One?


• To V or Not to V: A Practical Guide To Virtualization


• The Virtualization Spectrum from Hyperthreads to GRIDs

This issue of MeasureIT is unique in my mind because it is rare to find, in one place, such a broad collection of performance perspectives centered on the intensely hot topic of virtualization.