Microsoft Gulf, Intel demonstrate new levels of power, price and performance with CRM scalability benchmark

Through a combination of enterprise-class software and the latest Intel Xeon processor 5500 series, which can reduce server power consumption by up to 30%, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 scaled to more than 50,000 concurrent users over a high-volume workload — while experiencing subsecond response times.

Tamer Elhamy, Business Solutions Manager, Microsoft Gulf, said:

"Our business strategy is to make CRM technology that is simple, flexible and affordable for companies of all sizes. In this benchmark, we've proved that Microsoft Dynamics CRM can handle extreme workloads with minimal investment in hardware and a reduced impact to the environment. We're once again redefining the price-to-value equation in the CRM market, across all deployment models."

By comparison, an October 2008 performance test for Oracle Siebel Release 8.0 scaled to 14,000 users and 1.6 million daily transactions leveraging Sun hardware that cost more than $150,000. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM benchmark scaled to more than 50,000 users and more than 2.9 million daily transactions — all from hardware that costs less than $35,000, or $0.70 per user. In this comparison, Microsoft Dynamics CRM drove three and a half times more users and almost two times more transactions — while reducing hardware costs nearly 80%.

"Intel and Microsoft engineers worked together to optimize Microsoft Dynamics CRM for new Intel Xeon processor 5500 series-based servers with intelligent server technology capabilities and Intel Solid State Drives (SSDs)," said Samir Al-Schamma, Intel General Manager for the GCC. "This collaboration led to exceptional economic scalability and responsiveness results, which can enable companies of all sizes to deploy enterprise-class business solutions at a fraction of what these kinds of solutions have traditionally cost."

Detailed performance tests and production runs were completed on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Windows SQL Server 2008 for 50,000 concurrent users, 5,000 concurrent users, 2,500 concurrent users, and 1,000 concurrent users. For scenarios with casual users or lower transaction rates per user, higher number of users can be accommodated.