What is Azure Disk Storage?
Azure Disk Storage provides managed block storage disks for Azure Virtual Machines. The service offers four performance tiers: Ultra Disk for latency-sensitive workloads, Premium SSD v2 for flexible performance configuration, Premium SSD for production applications, Standard SSD for moderate workloads and Standard HDD for archiving and backups.
All managed disks are automatically triple-replicated, encrypted and provisioned without downtime. Management is handled through the Azure Portal, CLI or ARM Templates, without developers needing to worry about the underlying storage infrastructure.
Azure Disk Storage supports Shared Disks for cluster scenarios, Disk Bursting for temporary load spikes and on-demand performance scaling without VM restart.
Core Features
- Four performance tiers: Ultra Disk, Premium SSD v2, Premium SSD, Standard SSD, Standard HDD
- Server-side encryption with platform-managed or customer-managed keys
- Shared Disks for Windows Server Failover Cluster and Linux cluster solutions
- Disk Bursting for temporary performance boosts on Standard and Premium SSD
- Incremental snapshots for cost-effective backups
Typical Use Cases
Database Operations: Premium SSD or Ultra Disk for SQL Server, Oracle or PostgreSQL workloads with consistent low latency and high IOPS throughput.
SAP HANA: Ultra Disk for in-memory databases requiring sub-millisecond latency and high bandwidth.
Development and Test Environments: Standard SSD or Standard HDD for cost-optimized environments without strict performance requirements.
Benefits
- 99.99% SLA for Premium and Ultra Disk options
- Automatic triple replication within the data center
- Seamless scaling without downtime or VM restart
- GDPR-compliant with encryption at rest and in transit
Frequently Asked Questions
When should I use Ultra Disk instead of Premium SSD?
Ultra Disk is suited for workloads requiring sub-millisecond latency and more than 80,000 IOPS. Typical scenarios include SAP HANA, high-performance databases and transaction-intensive applications. Premium SSD is sufficient for most production workloads.
Can I change disk performance after provisioning?
Yes. With Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disk, IOPS and throughput can be adjusted independently of disk size without restarting the VM. For other disk types, a performance change requires a tier switch.
How do incremental snapshots work?
Incremental snapshots store only changes since the last snapshot. This significantly reduces storage costs compared to full snapshots and speeds up creation.
Integration with innFactory
As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, innFactory supports you with Azure Disk Storage: from selecting the optimal disk tier for your workloads to implementing backup strategies and optimizing your storage infrastructure costs.
