Azure Compute Fleet: Optimize the Costs of Large-Scale VM Deployments

• Azure Compute Fleet, in preview, can expedite the deployment and maintenance of a large number of Azure VMs in an Azure region.
• The service works with standard and Spot VMs, and it can deploy VMs based on desired capacity, cost requirements, and VM sizes.
• Compute Fleet could be particularly useful to manage Spot VM evictions and take better advantage of lower Spot VM pricing.
• Compute Fleet is best used in concert with other tools to manage workflow deployments, updates, and VM lifecycle (CI/CD).

Compute Fleet is a service in preview for deploying Azure VMs at scale within an Azure region, supporting as many as 10,000 VM instances managed per request. Customers can define a fleet request with several criteria, and Compute Fleet will deploy a combination of VMs that meet the defined criteria, optimized for cost, capacity, or a combination of the two. The service will also monitor fleets of deployed Spot VMs and attempt to refresh any evicted Spot VMs with available VMs that can meet the criteria of the fleet request. Compute Fleet could be a useful part of an organization’s continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) workflow and help leverage Spot VM savings while maintaining a consistent number of VM instances.