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Managed Disks VS Azure Disk Storage

Compare Managed Disks VS Azure Disk Storage and see what are their differences

Managed Disks logo Managed Disks

Azure Managed Disks are the new and recommended disk storage offerings for use with Azure Virtual Machines for persistent storage of data. Try the free trial today.

Azure Disk Storage logo Azure Disk Storage

Choose the right disk storage for all of your data workloads in the cloud—and get the durability, scalability, availability, and security you need.
  • Managed Disks Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-11
  • Azure Disk Storage Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-11

Managed Disks features and specs

  • Scalability
    Managed Disks automatically scale to accommodate your storage needs, supporting up to 2 PB per region, eliminating the need for manual disk management.
  • Reliability
    Managed Disks offer built-in high availability with resources automatically distributed across multiple availability zones, ensuring data protection against hardware failures.
  • Performance
    Azure Managed Disks provide consistent and high-performance levels, available in different types like Standard HDD, Standard SSD, and Premium SSD depending on the required workload.
  • Security
    Managed Disks enable Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), encryption at rest and during transport, and integration with Azure Backup for enhanced security.
  • Flexibility
    Various disk sizes and types accommodate different performance levels and price points, offering flexibility to meet specific requirements of applications.
  • Integration
    Managed Disks integrate seamlessly with other Azure services like Azure Backup, Azure Policy, and Azure Disk Encryption, offering a comprehensive cloud ecosystem experience.

Possible disadvantages of Managed Disks

  • Cost
    Managed Disks can be more expensive than unmanaged alternatives, primarily due to additional features such as scaling, redundancy, and ease of use.
  • Complex Pricing
    The pricing structure, involving various disk types and features, can be complex, potentially confusing users about which option is the most cost-effective for their needs.
  • Limited Customization
    Managed Disks, being managed, offer limited customization options compared to unmanaged disks where users can customize storage more freely.
  • Dependency on Cloud Platform
    Using Managed Disks ties users to the Azure platform, which can complicate migration to other cloud providers or on-premises solutions.

Azure Disk Storage features and specs

  • High Availability
    Azure Disk Storage provides high availability with an SLA of up to 99.99%, ensuring that your data and applications remain accessible and resilient against hardware failures.
  • Scalability
    The service offers easy scalability, allowing you to quickly adjust disk sizes and performance tiers to meet the growing demands of your applications without significant downtime.
  • Integration with Azure Services
    Azure Disk Storage integrates seamlessly with other Azure services like Virtual Machines, enabling smooth operations and optimization of IT resources in a hybrid or cloud environment.
  • Managed Disks
    Azure provides managed disks, which automatically handle the storage account management, simplifying the deployment and minimizing administrative overhead.
  • Variety of Disk Options
    Azure Disk Storage offers various types of disks, such as Ultra Disk, Premium SSD, Standard SSD, and Standard HDD, catering to different performance and cost requirements.

Possible disadvantages of Azure Disk Storage

  • Cost
    Azure Disk Storage can become costly, especially for premium options and at scale, making it less feasible for budget-constrained projects or when storing large volumes of infrequently accessed data.
  • Complex Pricing Model
    The pricing model can be complex, depending on the disk type, performance tier, region, and additional features such as snapshots, which requires careful consideration to forecast expenses accurately.
  • Regional Limitations
    Some advanced features or specific disk types may not be available in all regions, which can limit deployment options for global applications requiring consistent performance across regions.
  • Performance Variability
    Users may experience variability in performance depending on the chosen disk type and configuration, which necessitates thorough testing to ensure it meets application requirements.

Managed Disks videos

Azure Managed Vs Unmanaged Disks

Azure Disk Storage videos

Overview of Azure Disk Storage security features

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Managed Disks and Azure Disk Storage)
Cloud Storage
45 45%
55% 55
Cloud Computing
52 52%
48% 48
Object Storage
62 62%
38% 38
Monitoring Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Managed Disks should be more popular than Azure Disk Storage. It has been mentiond 11 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Managed Disks mentions (11)

  • Azure Container Instances vs Sliplane
    In US East, Azure's Managed Disks start at $0.30 for 4 GB plus a transaction fee for read, write, and delete operations. The transaction fee is limited by the maximum number of transactions, e.g., max. $1.00 for a 4 GB disk. For the comparison, I will neglect it, even though a high number of transactions can have a quite significant influence. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • premium ssd v2
    Https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/managed-disks/ for more information on how this disk is priced. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Price for unattached disk
    Google p30 and get this Https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/managed-disks/ About 7 usd per month. Source: about 2 years ago
  • copy between disks/mountpoints slow
    What size are your disks as this determines a few things? Credit based bursting is enabled by default for E30 and smaller but you may have to upgrade to premium to get the performance what you need. Look at, Https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/managed-disks/. Source: over 2 years ago
  • How much do my unattached disk cost?
    So question for you...... How woudl you "normally" compute how much a disk that is not attached costs? Would it be by size/type, location? Https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/managed-disks/. Source: over 2 years ago
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Azure Disk Storage mentions (2)

  • Azure Container Storage Now in Public Preview
    Azure Container Storage provides a consistent management experience across different storage offerings, including a managed option (backed by Azure Elastic SAN), Azure Disks, and ephemeral disks on container services - intended to simplify the deployment of persistent volumes. Previously, customers had to use individual container storage interface (CSI) drivers to offer cloud storage for containers, causing... Source: almost 2 years ago
  • What database and servers do you use to store media like images
    Azure (and most other providers) have a similar block storage solution. Here's Azure's: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/storage/disks. Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Managed Disks and Azure Disk Storage, you can also consider the following products

Vultr Block Storage Vultr - We are simplifying the cloud. One Login, 9 Countries, 16 Cities, Infinite Possibilities.

SUSE Enterprise Storage - SUSE intelligent software-defined storage solution enables to transform the enterprise storage infrastructure and reduce costs while providing unlimited scalability.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Block Volumes - Oracle Block Volumes provides high-speed block storage capacity with seamless data protection and recovery. Network-attached block volumes deliver low latency, and 25,000 IOPS and 320 MBps per block volume.

Zadara Storage - Enterprise Storage-as-a-Service Solutions (STaaS). On premises or in the cloud. Fully-managed 24/7. Pay only for what you use. Leading companies worldwide trust Zadara Data Storage. Proud to be the best cloud storage option

QAwerk - Quality assurance company QAwerk is an independent software testing company that will launch, support and manage the best QA team to keep your product healthy and shiny

QuantaStor Software Defined Storage - The QuantaStor Software Defined Storage platform turns servers into multi-protocol scale-out storage appliances and delivers file, block, and object storage.