Microsoft Azure Cobalt 100 VMs Announced

Microsoft is announcing the preview of new Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) featuring their custom-designed Azure Cobalt 100 Arm-based processor.

Key Points

• The Cobalt 100 processor is based on the Arm Neoverse N2 design, offering improved performance for cloud-based applications.
• Three VM series are available: Dpsv6/Dplsv6 (general purpose), Epsv6 (memory-optimized), for various workloads like databases, web servers, and containerized applications.
• These VMs deliver significant performance improvements compared to previous Azure Arm-based VMs (up to 1.4x CPU performance, 1.5x on Java, 2x on web servers).
• They also offer increased local storage IOPS and network bandwidth.
• The VMs are currently in preview and available for free, but you will be charged for other Azure resources used with them (storage, etc.).
• They support a wide range of Linux distributions and Windows versions.
• Microsoft is committed to a growing Arm ecosystem for developers, with support from major partners (Canonical, Red Hat, etc.).

Benefits

• Improved performance and efficiency for cloud workloads.
• More choice and flexibility for developers using Arm architecture.
• Potential cost savings due to Arm's efficiency.

Getting Started

• Fill out the form to request access to the preview.
• You can learn more about the new Azure Cobalt 100 VMs by visiting the specification pages: Dpsv6-series, Dpdsv6-series, Dplsv6-series, Dpldsv6-series, Epsv6-series, Epdsv6-series.

This announcement highlights Microsoft's investment in Arm technology and its aim to provide a powerful and versatile cloud platform for developers and businesses.