Are you sure the linux instance you just spun up is healthy? Is the data service you've initiated, performing as it should? Cloud services add a dimension of variability that can affect a given instance, service or network as much as 10x. Now you can quickly benchmark and validate the service you've ordered is working in expected form.

should I get the i3 or e3? database on VM or DBAAS? Dedicated or cloud? mysql or postgres DBAAS? networked or local storage? Get a true idea of the performance differences between the multitude of choices your host offers.

tweak your favorite setting like memory page size, filesystem type, memory allocator, compression, caching, cpu pinning, provisioned iops along with dozens of database/datastore/webserver variables and find out just how much of a difference they can make. Benchmark and compare the differences.

Making a choice between hosts (such as aws, azure, gcp, etc..)? Instead of comparing marketing material and specs, now perform directly measured comparisions to determine best value relative to cost. (linux hosts centos, redhat, fedora, ubuntu, debian, suse)

If you want to have an idea of how your benchmarks stand to the global average, for a given host, etc.. it's critical you have standardized results from others to compare. get access to the Scalebench community results to learn where your instance rates.