Accelerating AI and databases with Azure Container Storage, now 7 times faster and open source

We’re thrilled to introduce the latest version of Azure Container Storage, offering up to seven times the IOPS and four times reduced latency when compared to earlier releases.

More businesses are opting to deploy stateful workloads—like relational databases, AI inferencing, and messaging queues—on Kubernetes than ever before. For developers engaging with Kubernetes, the significance of storage performance has never been greater.

Today marks the launch of Azure Container Storage version 2.0.0. This new iteration brings an impressive increase in performance, offering up to seven times higher IOPS and four times less latency. Plus, it boasts enhanced resource efficiency. With added support for local NVMe drives, Azure Container Storage now stands as our most powerful Kubernetes storage solution on Azure. The best part? It’s entirely free, available as an open-source alternative for installation on non-AKS clusters. Whether you’re running stateful applications in production, scaling AI projects, or optimising dev/test environments, this release promises a significant performance upgrade for your workloads.

What is Azure Container Storage?

Before we explore the latest features, let’s briefly recap what Azure Container Storage is and how it facilitates the efficient operation of stateful workloads on Kubernetes.

Azure Container Storage is a cloud-native volume management and orchestration service specifically tailored for Kubernetes environments. It integrates effortlessly with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), enabling the provision of persistent volumes for large-scale, stateful workloads.

The mission of Azure Container Storage is to provide a consistent block storage orchestrator for Kubernetes workloads on Azure, ensuring a streamlined experience across various storage backends through Kubernetes APIs. This version 2.0.0 is focused on delivering exceptional performance using local NVMe storage, merging enterprise-level speed with cloud-native simplicity. Later in the year, we will be launching compatibility for Azure Container Storage with Elastic SAN.

Azure Container Storage ensures optimal performance and efficiency with low-latency storage for high-throughput stateful applications. It also features built-in orchestration and automation, allowing Kubernetes to manage storage pools, handle persistent volume lifecycles, manage snapshots, and scale—all without needing to switch contexts or deal with individual CSI (Container Storage Interface) drivers.

What’s New?

There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s delve into some of the main advantages that Azure Container Storage v2.0.0 brings:

Changes to Pricing

As before, you’ll only pay for the underlying storage backend you choose. However, with Azure Container Storage versions 2.0.0 and beyond, there will be no per-GB monthly fees for storage pools exceeding 5 TiB, applicable to both our managed and open-source versions. This means you can provision unlimited storage without the burden of additional management fees. Enjoy enterprise-quality storage orchestration and outstanding performance without any extra costs—just pure benefits for your Kubernetes applications.

Improved Performance with Lower Resource Usage

This release of Azure Container Storage has been meticulously optimised for local NVMe drives across a variety of VM families, unlocking top-tier I/O performance for your most critical workloads while lowering infrastructure expenses.

Excitingly, the new version of Azure Container Storage on local NVMe is faster than ever. We’ve completely restructured our architecture, from the kernel right through to the control plane, in order to maximise the capabilities of our storage orchestrator. This substantial speed enhancement is matched by an equally impressive reduction in cluster resource usage. Previously, Azure Container Storage on local NVMe operated in three performance modes, consuming between 12.5% and 50% of your node pool’s CPU cores. With v2.0.0, we’ve eliminated these tiers in favour of consistently high performance while using fewer resources than our previous lowest-impact tier. This directly translates to cost savings—enhanced performance while freeing up CPU capacity for quicker application operations.

To illustrate, benchmarks using fio (Flexible I/O Tester) show that Azure Container Storage on NVMe achieves an impressive 7 times higher IOPS and a 4 times reduction in latency when compared to the earlier version.

But how does this affect real workloads? Testing our PostgreSQL for AKS deployment guide revealed that PostgreSQL transactions per second improved by 60%, coupled with a latency reduction of over 30%. For applications reliant on databases, this means quicker query responses, increased throughput, and enhanced user experiences.

Overall, Azure Container Storage provides a notable performance increase for I/O-heavy workloads right from the get-go, without the need for additional configuration, making it a straightforward yet powerful tool for developers in the cloud-native realm.

Faster AI Model Loading and KAITO Integration

For AI and machine learning workloads, slow model loading times can be a significant challenge. Azure VMs equipped with GPUs have local NVMe drives available. Thanks to the latest NVMe upgrades in version 2.0.0, Azure Container Storage enhances the loading speed of model files for AI inferencing workloads significantly. With our recent collaboration with KAITO, the first Kubernetes-native controller for automating AI model deployments, you can now deploy and scale AI models more efficiently than ever, leading to quicker inference times and improved responsiveness in AI applications.

During our testing with the Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct LLM, we observed a fivefold improvement in model file loading speed using Azure Container Storage v2.0.0 compared to an ephemeral OS disk.

Increased Flexibility in Scaling

Previously, Azure Container Storage required a minimum of three nodes when using ephemeral drives. Now it supports clusters of any size, even single-node setups. This adaptability is especially beneficial for applications with robust replication or backup capabilities, development environments, and edge deployments that require high-performance storage without the necessity of larger clusters. The removal of minimum node requirements also reduces costs for smaller setups while preserving high-performance capabilities.

Open Source and Community Engagement

We appreciate the vital role the open-source community plays in the health and spirit of the Kubernetes ecosystem. Azure Container Storage version 2.0.0 is now established on our newly launched open-source repositories, making it accessible to a wider audience within the Kubernetes community.

Whether you need the Azure-managed version for seamless AKS integration or prefer the community open-source edition for self-hosted Kubernetes clusters, you will enjoy the same great features and benefits. The open-source model fosters easier installation, greater transparency, and the opportunity to contribute to the project’s advancement.

Check out our open-source repository (local-csi-driver) and discover more about our related block storage products:

In Summary

This major upgrade to Azure Container Storage provides a faster, leaner high-performance storage solution for Kubernetes. Here’s a quick overview of what’s included:

• Included out of the box: This release optimises ephemeral drives (local NVMe and temporary SSD) found in select VM families, including storage-optimised L-series, GPU-powered ND-series, and general-purpose Da-series.
• Enhanced workload capabilities: Fine-tuned for demanding applications such as PostgreSQL databases and KAITO-managed AI model serving.
• Exceptional performance: Achieving a sevenfold improvement in read/write IOPS and a fourfold reduction in latency, along with 60% better PostgreSQL transaction throughput.
• Open-source foundation: Developed on open-source principles with community repositories for simpler installation on any Kubernetes cluster.
• Flexible scaling options: Deploy on clusters that can consist of just one node—no minimum requirement necessary.
• No service fees: Completely free to use for all storage pool sizes—simply pay for the underlying storage.

Getting Started

Excited to see the performance improvements for yourself? Here are the steps to get started:

Regardless of the workload type, Azure Container Storage delivers the performance and simplicity that modern cloud-native storage demands. We can’t wait to see what innovative solutions you create—and we’d love to hear your thoughts. Happy developing!