Azure Managed Disks Demystified

• A wide range of overlapping options makes finding the right managed disk challenging.
• Underpurchasing carries performance and availability risks, but overspending on high-end options can be problematic, too.
• Four key questions can help with the selection process.

Azure Managed Disks offer a wide range of disk types to be used as block storage for Azure Virtual Machines (Azure VMs). But finding the most cost-effective option can be difficult. Some degree of test-and-adjust is usually required when initially building out a deployment of Azure VMs.

What Are Azure Managed Disks?

Azure Managed Disks are conceptually similar to the physical disks installed in on-premises servers, even if they are quite different under the covers. When attached to a VM, they appear as normal block-level storage devices, but they are actually a service accessed over the network. Although there are other options available for VM storage, Azure Managed Disks are the commonest storage option for Azure VMs and are typically the best choice.