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Azure's basic instances level up and gain new naming scheme
It looks a lot like Redmond has new servers with faster disks on tap
Microsoft's levelling up its A-series Azure virtual machines, the vanilla instances in its cloud, and has a new way of letting you know whats under the hood of a cloudy computer.
The instances first: we're guessing that the seven new A_v2-Series instances run on new hardware because how else would Microsoft claim 2-10x faster random disk IOPS and a big RAM increase?
Here's the specs for the new instances.
Size |
vCPU |
RAM (GiB) |
Temporary Disk (SSD) |
Max Network Bandwidth |
Standard_A1_v2 |
1 |
2 |
10 GB |
Moderate |
Standard_A2_v2 |
2 |
4 |
20 GB |
Moderate |
Standard_A4_v2 |
4 |
8 |
40 GB |
High |
Standard_A8_v2 |
8 |
16 |
80 GB |
High |
Standard_A2m_v2 |
2 |
16 |
20 GB |
Moderate |
Standard_A4m_v2 |
4 |
32 |
40 GB |
High |
Standard_A8m_v2 |
8 |
64 |
80 GB |
High |
And here's how they compare to the old A-Series.
Size |
vCPU |
RAM (GiB) |
Disk Size |
|
Size |
vCPU |
RAM (GiB) |
Disk Size |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A1 |
1 |
1.75 |
20 GB (HDD) |
→ |
A1_v2 |
1 |
2 |
10 GB (SSD) |
A2 |
2 |
3.50 |
70 GB (HDD) |
→ |
A2_v2 |
2 |
4 |
20 GB (SSD) |
A3 |
4 |
7 |
285 GB (HDD) |
→ |
A4_v2 |
4 |
8 |
40 GB (SSD) |
A4 |
8 |
14 |
605 GB (HDD) |
→ |
A8_v2 |
8 |
16 |
80 GB (SSD) |
A5 |
2 |
14 |
135 GB (HDD) |
→ |
A2m_v2 |
2 |
16 |
20 GB (SSD) |
A6 |
4 |
26 |
285 GB (HDD) |
→ |
A4m_v2 |
4 |
32 |
40 GB (SSD) |
A7 |
8 |
52 |
605 GB (HDD) |
→ |
A8m_v2 |
8 |
64 |
80 GB (SSD) |
Another new feature of these instances is their names, which now explain their specifications.
The first character – A – indicates the family of VMs to which the instance belongs.
Next comes a numeral indicating the number of virtual CPUs. If the next character is an “m” that means it is a high memory VM with 8GB per vCPU.
Microsoft says the new VM type will soon be available in all Azure regions. Surely another sign new kit's been unloaded of late?
And news of the new VMs is probably a sign Microsoft wants to make a little noise before Amazon Web Services' Re:invent conference next week. ®