WRF Benchmark Measurements and Cost Comparison – Virtualized Environment Versus Physical Hardware

Abstract

The authors performed Weather Research and Forecasting model benchmark measurements on a wide variety of computer platforms while keeping track of the associated costs. The test executions took place in cloud environments, on dedicated, physical servers and personal computers for reference. The unified measurement framework and the use of software container technology ensure the comparability of the results. The derived secondary data supports the planning of resources for the research project, and makes it possible to predict the required computing performance for later tasks during the research progress. The article details the setup and results of the measurements, while explaining the used technology and model. The results show that for smaller scale applications, cloud computing provides a less costly alternative to physical servers, while on a larger scale, usage of a dedicated physical server is advised.