{"id":5600,"date":"2026-09-17T15:38:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T15:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cloudobjectivity.co.uk\/?p=5600"},"modified":"2026-09-19T17:39:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T17:39:53","slug":"first-vmmark-4-1-power-performance-and-vmware-cloud-foundation-9-1-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloudobjectivity.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/09\/17\/first-vmmark-4-1-power-performance-and-vmware-cloud-foundation-9-1-results\/","title":{"rendered":"First VMmark 4.1 Power-Performance and VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 Results"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Publish Date: September 17, 2026<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Executive Overview<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The strategic management of enterprise private cloud infrastructure is confronting a dual imperative: extracting maximum computational performance from modern high-density processor silicon while simultaneously addressing stringent sustainability, energy efficiency, and data center power envelope constraints. Across global technology organizations, Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), and platform infrastructure directors are no longer evaluating infrastructure investments solely through the lens of raw compute throughput or static consolidation ratios. As power density per rack escalates\u2014driven by dense multi-core processor architectures, memory-intensive transactional engines, and distributed artificial intelligence acceleration\u2014the electrical grid has emerged as the definitive physical bottleneck within enterprise data centers. In many metropolitan regions, power availability and utility allocation limits dictate infrastructure expansion far more than physical floor space or capital budgets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, measuring and comparing virtualized infrastructure efficiency across software versions and hardware configurations was burdened by fragmented, synthetic benchmarking methodologies. Legacy benchmarking tools evaluated compute, memory, or storage in isolation, failing to reflect the dynamic, multi-tier workload profiles characteristic of production enterprise private clouds. Furthermore, traditional benchmarks almost exclusively reported peak transactional rates or compute speed, treating power consumption as an external, unmeasured variable. This operational void left infrastructure architects unable to quantify how software stack optimizations\u2014such as hypervisor scheduling refinements, cache-aware placement, and advanced memory tiering\u2014directly affect electrical consumption and operational expenditure (OpEx). Consequently, IT organizations were challenged to prove whether upgrading foundational private cloud software could yield tangible energy savings and defer physical server procurement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This technical infrastructure advisory provides a rigorous evaluation of the benchmark disclosures published by David Morse, Performance Engineer within the VMware Cloud Foundation Division of Broadcom. The announcement details the first official publication of benchmark results utilizing both VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1 and VMmark 4.1. Conducted in collaboration with Dell Technologies on 16th-generation Dell PowerEdge R770 servers powered by Intel Xeon 6787P processors (featuring 344 total cores), the testing establishes an empirical baseline comparing VCF 9.1 directly against its predecessor, VCF 5.2, across identical physical hardware. The benchmark results prove that software layer modernization alone delivers an 11% higher VMmark 4 performance score, a 10% increase in supported tile count (scaling from 4.2 tiles to 4.6 tiles), and establishes Dell’s initial Server Power-Performance score of 1.5255 Performance Per Kilowatt (PPKW) at 4.6 tiles. By pairing the Next-Gen Topology-Aware CPU Scheduler with memory tiering enhancements that yield up to a 12% reduction in CPU utilization, VCF 9.1 establishes an operational blueprint for maximizing infrastructure density and energy efficiency without requiring hardware replacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Features<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The benchmark evaluation uniting VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 and VMmark 4.1 introduces an empirical technical framework engineered to measure real-world application performance, quantify power efficiency, and substantiate the architectural impact of ESXi hypervisor optimizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • Next-Gen Topology-Aware CPU Scheduler Optimization: VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 incorporates an advanced scheduling architecture directly within the ESXi hypervisor kernel. The scheduler is designed to optimize memory and cache locality for intensive enterprise workloads by evaluating modern processor topologies, Sub-NUMA Clustering (SNC) boundaries, and multi-tier cache hierarchies. By mapping virtual machines to optimal execution domains in real time, the hypervisor minimizes cross-socket interconnect traversal and shared cache contention, driving significant throughput gains on identical physical silicon.<\/p>
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  • Advanced Memory Tiering CPU Offload: In tandem with scheduler enhancements, VCF 9.1 incorporates native memory tiering optimizations. As demonstrated in dedicated engineering evaluations, these memory tiering capabilities achieve up to a 12% reduction in host CPU utilization when managing complex memory allocation patterns. By minimizing the processor cycles historically expended on memory reclamation, paging, and oversubscription overhead, more compute headroom is preserved for active application execution.<\/p>
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  • VMmark 4.1 Performance Per Kilowatt (PPKW) Power Measurement: As the latest release of Broadcom’s free, industry-standard cluster-level benchmarking suite, VMmark 4.1 expands upon the scalability and performance measurement of VMmark 4.0 by integrating standardized electrical power telemetry. VMmark 4.1 incorporates calibrated power meters to calculate a consolidated Performance Per Kilowatt (PPKW) metric. This capability provides enterprise infrastructure teams and hardware original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with a standardized method to quantify and compare the electrical energy required to execute identical enterprise workload mixes across diverse hardware and software platforms.<\/p>
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  • Standardized Multi-Tier Enterprise Workload Mix (Tile Architecture): VMmark utilizes a tile-based architecture that simulates realistic enterprise application environments rather than isolated synthetic compute loops. Each VMmark tile bundles a standardized collection of virtual machines executing representative enterprise applications, including scalable web tiers, Java-based business logic servers, database systems running transactional processing, and background infrastructure operations (such as vMotion migrations and automated provisioning). Scalability is measured by the platform’s ability to maintain rigid quality-of-service (QoS) and latency thresholds as tile counts increase.<\/p>
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  • Validated Dell Technologies PowerEdge R770 Configuration: The benchmark validation was conducted using an enterprise-grade hardware platform provided by Dell Technologies:<\/p>\n

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    • Server Platform: Dell PowerEdge R770.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Processor Model: Intel Xeon 6787P (Granite Rapids microarchitecture).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Total Physical Cores: 344 cores across the test cluster.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Storage Fabric: Identical high-performance enterprise storage array infrastructure utilized across both VCF 5.2 and VCF 9.1 testing phases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n

    • Empirical Comparative Scoring: The benchmark executed identical test profiles across successive software generations on the exact same server and storage hardware, yielding definitive comparative metrics:<\/p>\n

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      • VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2: Achieved a VMmark 4 score of 3.34 @ 4.2 tiles on the Dell PowerEdge R770 cluster.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1: Achieved a VMmark 4 score of 3.72 @ 4.6 tiles on the identical Dell PowerEdge R770 cluster.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Power Efficiency Baseline: Dell’s new Server Power-Performance score established at 1.5255 PPKW @ 4.6 tiles under VMmark 4.1.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n

      • Rapid Demonstration and Hands-on Validation Access: Broadcom provides direct access to the benchmarking methodology via VMware Hands-on Labs. Infrastructure operators and architects can evaluate the testing environment and execution framework in less than 60 seconds through Module 3: “VMmark 4.1: Performance Benchmarking Real-World Application Workloads in VCF 9.1.”<\/p>
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        Benefits<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

        The empirical findings from the VMmark 4.1 benchmark deliver clear operational, financial, and strategic advantages for organizations evaluating private cloud modernization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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        • Immediate Compute Capacity Expansion via In-Place Software Modernization: The comparative benchmark proves that transitioning from VCF 5.2 to VCF 9.1 delivers an 11% increase in raw performance and a 10% increase in tile capacity on the exact same physical server, processor, and storage configuration. Organizations can instantly increase virtual machine density and process larger transaction volumes without procuring additional physical servers, refreshing motherboards, or expanding existing rack footprints.<\/p>
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        • Defensible Data Center Power and Carbon Footprint Optimization: With the introduction of the VMmark 4.1 PPKW metric, enterprise sustainability officers and infrastructure directors gain an auditable, empirical measurement of compute power efficiency. The 1.5255 PPKW score achieved by the Dell PowerEdge R770 on VCF 9.1 establishes that modern hypervisor scheduling extracts higher useful work output per kilowatt-hour consumed, directly assisting organizations in meeting corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) targets and reducing recurring utility expenditures.<\/p>
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        • Recapture of Wasted CPU Overhead via Memory Tiering: Achieving up to a 12% reduction in host CPU utilization through memory tiering enhancements directly impacts bottom-line infrastructure economics. Host processor cores that previously spent cycles arbitrating memory pressure are reclaimed for revenue-generating enterprise workloads, lowering core contention, mitigating noisy-neighbor effects in multi-tenant environments, and improving application service-level agreements (SLAs).<\/p>
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        • Extension of Server Hardware Lifecycles and Capital Deferral: In an enterprise hardware procurement landscape constrained by semiconductor component supply chain bottlenecks and rising server acquisition costs, the ability to extract 10% more workload capacity from existing compute assets allows enterprises to defer capital-intensive hardware refreshes. Organizations running 16th-generation Dell hardware can extend asset lifecycles while continuing to absorb enterprise workload growth.<\/p>
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        • Standardized Multi-Vendor Architectural Comparison: Because VMmark 4.1 functions as the recognized industry-standard cluster-level virtualization benchmark, technology leaders can use PPKW and tile scalability scores to execute objective, data-driven hardware evaluations. Platform architects can systematically evaluate competitive processor microarchitectures and OEM server platforms under identical workload conditions before allocating procurement capital.<\/p>
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        • De-Risking Tier-One Enterprise Application Scaling: Because VMmark tiles test multi-tier enterprise applications concurrently\u2014encompassing database, web, compute, and live administrative migrations\u2014the benchmark provides assurance that performance improvements in VCF 9.1 translate directly into real-world production reliability, predictable response latencies, and stable multi-tenant operations.<\/p>
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          Use Cases<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

          Global enterprise organizations managing dense, power-constrained, and mission-critical infrastructure estates can utilize the architectural insights established by the VMmark 4.1 results to solve pressing operational challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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          • Power-Constrained Metropolitan Data Center Modernization: A multinational financial institution operates its primary transactional systems inside a colocation facility situated in a major financial hub. The facility has imposed a hard electrical power cap of 15 kW per rack, preventing the physical installation of additional server enclosures despite a 15% annual increase in digital banking transactions. By upgrading its existing Dell PowerEdge server fleet from VCF 5.2 to VCF 9.1, the institution leverages the Next-Gen Topology-Aware CPU Scheduler and memory tiering optimizations to process 11% more throughput within the existing electrical power envelope, avoiding the substantial capital expense of migrating to an alternative data center facility.<\/p>
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          • Enterprise Private Cloud Consolidation and License Sizing: A global manufacturing conglomerate seeks to consolidate dozens of regional, underutilized ESXi clusters onto centralized Dell PowerEdge R770 infrastructure. Platform architects utilize VMmark 4.1 tile and PPKW metrics to precisely model multi-tenant capacity and power consumption. By verifying that VCF 9.1 scales from 4.2 to 4.6 tiles on 344-core platforms, the architecture team safely consolidates mixed ERP and supply-chain microservices onto a smaller physical host count, maximizing per-core software licensing investments and slashing data center cooling overhead.<\/p>
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          • ESG Sustainability Auditing and Sovereign Data Center Compliance: A European public sector cloud service provider operates sovereign infrastructure subject to strict European Union Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) mandates, which require verifiable reporting of data center energy consumption and compute workload efficiency. By deploying VMmark 4.1 to benchmark its Dell and VCF 9.1 workload domains, the provider captures verified PPKW scores (1.5255 PPKW @ 4.6 tiles) to provide government auditors with empirical proof of power-performance optimization, fulfilling compliance mandates while advertising sustainable private cloud services to municipal tenants.<\/p>
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          • High-Density Tier-1 In-Memory Database and Relational Scaling: A nationwide healthcare network operates mission-critical electronic health record (EHR) databases alongside diagnostic web services. The organization is experiencing host CPU saturation during peak morning clinic shift changes. Upgrading the underlying compute cluster to VCF 9.1 unlocks the 12% CPU utilization savings delivered by advanced memory tiering, immediately relieving hypervisor CPU queues, stabilizing query response times, and accommodating additional patient portal traffic without requiring emergency hardware acquisitions.<\/p>
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            Alternatives<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

            A comprehensive infrastructure assessment requires comparing the empirical software-driven efficiency gains of VCF 9.1 under VMmark 4.1 against alternative private and hybrid cloud compute optimization models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n