Azure Virtual Machines Storage Options

Choosing the right storage for your Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) is crucial for performance, cost-effectiveness, and reliability. Azure offers a variety of managed disk types and unmanaged disks to suit different workload needs.

Managed Disks

Managed Disks are the recommended approach for storing VM data. Azure manages the storage account behind the scenes, simplifying management and providing higher availability and durability. You can choose from several managed disk types:

1. Premium SSD Managed Disks

Best for: Production and test workloads requiring low latency, high throughput, and consistent performance. This includes mission-critical applications, I/O-intensive databases, and demanding workloads.
Features: High IOPS, low latency, high throughput.
Performance Tiers: Offer various performance levels based on disk size and type (P1-P80).
Cost: Higher than Standard SSD and Standard HDD.

2. Standard SSD Managed Disks

Best for: Workloads that require consistent performance with lower latency than Standard HDD, but do not demand the highest IOPS. Suitable for web servers, low-demand applications, and development/test environments.
Features: Consistent low latency, good performance.
Performance Tiers: Offer good balance between performance and cost.
Cost: More affordable than Premium SSDs.

3. Standard HDD Managed Disks

Best for: Workloads that are I/O-intensive but can tolerate higher latency. Ideal for backups, non-critical applications, and disaster recovery scenarios.
Features: Lowest cost, high capacity.
Performance: Highest latency and lowest IOPS among managed disks.
Cost: Most cost-effective for large data volumes.

Note: With Managed Disks, Azure handles availability sets and fault domains for disks. This means your disks are highly available by default, and you don't need to manage storage accounts for individual VM disks.

Unmanaged Disks

Unmanaged disks are an older storage option where you are responsible for managing the storage accounts. While still supported, Managed Disks are generally preferred for new deployments due to their simplified management and enhanced features.

Data Disks: Can be stored in Azure Storage Accounts (Blob storage).
OS Disks: Can also be stored in Azure Storage Accounts.
Management: Requires manual creation and management of storage accounts, VHDs, and VM configurations.
Availability: Less resilient compared to Managed Disks as you are responsible for data redundancy and availability.

Tip: For new VM deployments, it is strongly recommended to use Managed Disks for better performance, reliability, and simplified management.

Choosing the Right Disk

Consider the following factors when selecting your VM storage:

Workload Type: What kind of application are you running? (e.g., database, web server, compute-intensive).
Performance Requirements: What are your IOPS, throughput, and latency needs?
Cost: What is your budget for storage?
Availability and Durability: How critical is the uptime and data integrity?

Performance Comparison Summary

Disk Type	Best For	Latency	IOPS (Max)	Throughput (Max)	Cost
Premium SSD	Mission-critical apps, I/O-intensive DBs	Very Low	Up to 20,000	Up to 900 MB/s	High
Standard SSD	Web servers, Dev/Test	Low	Up to 1,000	Up to 200 MB/s	Medium
Standard HDD	Backups, Non-critical apps	High	Up to 500	Up to 100 MB/s	Low

For more detailed specifications and pricing information, please refer to the official Azure documentation.

Next Steps

Explore related topics to further enhance your understanding of Azure Virtual Machines:

Deploying VMs VM Security Best Practices