Itron: Latest Benchmark hot off the press... IEE MDM v7.0 SP3 on SQL Server 2008 R2 is something to talk about!

This spring there has been extensive benchmarking done with the Itron team on Itron Enterprise Edition Meter Data Management and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, which I have been following. A few weeks ago there was a webcast with Itron's Robert Sonderegger and our own Lonnye Bower, describing the preliminary results. Preliminary public results tend to be conservative to avoid egg-on-the-face syndrome. Today I received the final report (June 6th, 2011) while eating a very spicy Mexican meal -- I am not sure which was hotter. You can read the report here.

A few new items that I spotted were:

  • The benchmark handled a system equivalent to 20 million utility meters with hourly reads. There are about a half-dozen utilities in the world of that magnitude.
  • The import goal was exceeded by 170%
  • The export goal was exceeded by 204% -- ouch! That is hot!
  • A 3:1 reduction over the largest competitor in licensing costs was estimated.

You should compare these results to those obtained on SQL Server 2005 reported here -- SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with IEE MDM v7.0 SP3 pushed the benchmark more than 3x higher! Congratulations to the engineers at Itron and Microsoft for a job well done!