The Lasv3 and Lsv3 VM series provide faster processors, increased networking, and higher remote disk throughput
Microsoft announced the general availability (GA) of new storage-optimised Azure Virtual Machines (VMs). These VMs are the Lasv3 and Lsv3 series designed to run workloads requiring high throughput and IOPS, including big data applications, SQL and NoSQL databases, distributed file systems, and data analytics engines.
The Lasv3 and Lsv3 VM series provide faster processors, increased networking, and higher remote disk throughput compared to prior generation storage optimised VMs, more specifically:
- The Lasv3-series is based on the AMD EPYC 7763v processor, which features up to 256 MB L3 cache and can reach a boosted maximum clock of 3.5 GHz.
- And the Lsv3-series is powered by a 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Platinum 8370C (Ice Lake) processor with Intel Turbo Boost Technology, Intel Advanced-Vector Extensions 512 (Intel AVX-512), and Intel Deep Learning Boost, with an all-core turbo clock speed of 3.5 GHz.
Furthermore, high-throughput, low-latency, and directly mapped local Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) storage are features of the new Lasv3 and Lsv3 VMs. In addition, the VMs are available in capacities ranging from 8 to 80 vCPUs – and there are 8 GiBs of memory per vCPU and one 1.92TB NVMe SSD device per 8 vCPUs, with the most extensive VM sizes offering up to 19.2TB (10×1.92TB).
“At Databricks, we’ve evaluated the Lsv3 and Lasv3 Azure VMs for the lakehouse using a comprehensive series of benchmarks that reflect common and critical patterns in real-world analytics workloads. The v3 L-series’ local NVMe devices and faster CPU options enable Databricks Photon, the native vectorised query engine, to deliver leading price/performance for the most demanding data warehousing workloads,” said Zach Christopherson, Staff Performance Engineer, Databricks.
Microsoft’s competitor in the cloud space, AWS, also provides storage-optimised VMs with Amazon EC2 I3 Instances. Currently, the Lsv3 VMs are available in more than 20 regions. The Lasv3 VMs are initially available in Central US, East US, South Central US, and West Europe, with more to follow. The pricing details for the VMs are available on pricing pages for Windows and Linux.
