My company is involved in a proposal that requires speed estimates of our software on a server with the latest & greatest processors. This is not the first time we've been in this situation.
The servers themselves are too expensive to buy a new one every time, so we end up extrapolating from what we have. There are so many variables: processor generation & speed, memory speed, memory channels, cache configurations; it makes extrapolation difficult and error-prone.
Is there a business that rents time on the newest servers? At least part of the time we'd need exclusive access to an otherwise quiescent system either via ssh shell access or unattended batch jobs.
I am not looking for general cloud computing services. I don't need much time on the server, but it needs to be exclusive. And the server needs to be pretty cutting edge for a solid basis of estimate.
