Intel has recently disclosed a significant vulnerability in memory management leading to creation of two separate exploits named Spectre and Meltdown. A kernel upgrade has been performed on all affected servers as of 3:40 AM EST (-0500 GMT).
Until a better hotfix is provided, this will remain in place. Reports indicate a 17-23% performance penalty. Newer platforms built on flexible CPU allocations (cloud-backed platforms) have been allocated an additional 25% CPU to mitigate such impact.
Update:
Jan 8 3:52 AM EST (-0400 GMT)
A second kernel update has been applied that addresses Spectre vulnerability.