Updated: February 5, 2025 (February 5, 2025)
Analyst ReportAzure Managed Disks and Roles
Azure Managed Disks offer five disk types, from traditional spinning platters to high-performance SSDs. Although each type has its own performance characteristics and target scenario, there is significant overlap between some types.
The available set of Azure Managed Disk types includes the following:
- Standard HDD uses spinning media, is the least expensive option, and is best for cases in which performance isn’t critical.
- Standard SSD is intended for Web servers or dev/test workloads.
- Premium SSD offers significantly higher maximum IOPS.
- Premium SSD v2 is available in larger sizes and meant for production workloads with high IOPS and throughput needs.
- Ultra Disk is the highest-performing (and most expensive) option and is intended for I/O-intensive workloads, such as SAP HANA, heavily used SQL Server and Oracle databases, and other transaction-heavy workloads.
An Azure Managed Disk can fill one of three roles when attached to a VM, although not all disk types support all roles:
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