SPEC Releases SPECmail2008 Benchmark

The Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. (SPEC) has released SPECmail2008, a new benchmark that measures performance for enterprise mail servers compliant with SMTP and IMAP4 protocols.

The new benchmark uses real-world workloads to simulate the typical activities of mail servers operating in business enterprises. It complements SPECmail2001, which is designed for the consumer ISP market based on servers compliant with POP3 and SMTP protocols.

SPEC expects that vendors of e-mail server products will use SPECmail2008 to optimize products under development and to compare performance against competitors. IT managers will use it for product evaluation and to configure mail servers for better efficiency.

Workloads for the benchmark come from data samples collected by participating member companies and universities over an 18-month period. An additional two years was spent analyzing the data to emulate most of the popular IMAP clients, and to simulate common usage patterns within organizations. In addition to the standard set up, users can customize the workloads to reflect their own usage patterns and preferred IMAP client software. The metric for the benchmark, SPECmail_MSEnt2008, represents the number of IMAP4 sessions during a peak hour.

SPEC member companies active in developing SPECmail2008 include Citrix Online, CommuniGate, Mirapoint, Openwave Systems and Sun Microsystems.

SPECmail2008 is available immediately from SPEC for $1,800; discounts are available for qualified non-profit and educational institutions.

Source: SPEC

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