virtual machines

Resizing your Cloud Instance – When is the right time?

Bobby Varghese

Microsoft offers numerous options to choose from when it comes to selecting the best Azure compute instance for your workloads. Like we mentioned in our previous post about Azure Compute Instances, Microsoft offers 80 different instance types to their customers to choose from according to their workload sizes.

You can view the detailed specifications of various Azure Instances here.

We understand that it becomes overwhelming to pick the right Cloud instance to match the specific workload. But with the ever-changing workloads, enterprises need to continuously review and update their instances to match the delivery times and reduce costs.

Below are some signs which indicate that your current instance size is infeasible to run the application and that you should probably resize your Cloud Instance:

  • Long runtimes to complete a task,
  • Inability to meet customer demands on time, and
  • Need for more instances to support the workload.

In order to understand which compute instance to choose for their workload, admins should first learn about their computing requirements by running their applications in local environments and monitoring the performance to detect possible bottlenecks. On the basis of outcomes, they can decide on the number of processor cores, storage, memory, network bandwidth, etc., and can choose the instance that meets, and slightly exceeds, the estimated requirements.

But due to various limitations in the number of available virtual disks in certain instances, some applications still fail to run which force an admin to select a larger instance. Tools like Azure Diagnostics will help to measure the performance of an application within the instance. Admins can select that instance if their key metrics are met otherwise, they can try moving their workload in another instance.

 

If you are baffled by the number of options and are unsure about when to resize your Cloud Instance, get in touch with our Cloud experts by writing to us at info@sysfore.com. You can also give us a call at +91-80-4110-5555 and we’ll be happy to help.

 

 

Azure Compute Instances – Choose Wise, Choose Right

Bobby Varghese

Microsoft offers numerous options to choose from when it comes to selecting the best Azure compute instance for your workloads. Currently, there are 80 different instance types and we understand that choosing the best one can be overwhelming. In this article, we have listed various Azure compute instance types to help you select the one that best fits your workload size­.

Azure Compute Instances

Here’s an overview of available Azure Compute Instances:

A-series: used for general purposes, these instances provide consistent processor performance with a moderate amount of memory and disk capacity. However, additional processor cores and more network bandwidth can be added to some of these instances to compute-intensive tasks.

D-series: as compared to the A-series instances, these have more number of cores and provide more computing power and disk performance. Apart from this, they also provide temporary storage in the form of Solid State Drives (SSDs).

Dv2-series: using the same memory and disk configurations, these offer 35% more power than the D-series because of the use of newer processors that run in turbo mode.

DS-series, DSv2-series, FS-series and GS-series: These offer a powerful combination of faster CPUs, High Storage and Network Bandwidth for enterprise-grade applications. They also offer SSDs for caching and faster operations.

F-series: These VMs provide the same processor cores as the Dv2-series but what sets them apart is the per-hour operational cost of usage, which is usually lower in comparison.

G-series: offering the highest storage capacity, these usually run on servers having powerful Intel Xeon E5 V3 processors.

H-series: designed and optimized for high-performance computing (HPC) and networking, these instances can also run cluster applications, Modelling, and Simulations.

N-series: These VMs help to tackle the most demanding workloads by adding the processing capabilities of Graphic Processing Units (GPUs).

For more information, you can view the detailed specifications of various Azure Instances here.

 

 

 

If you are still baffled by the number of options and are unsure about which instance to choose for your enterprise, you can schedule a call with our Cloud experts by writing to us at info@sysfore.com or you can give us a call at +91-80-4110-5555.

 

 

Containers v/s Virtual Machines – which is best for your cloud?

Shantha Kumari

The cloud deployments today are based on virtual machines, but Containers offer another significant option for the users. The question of which Cloud deployment method to choose is entirely based on three primary factors:

  • Functional differences between VMs and containers,
  • Level of interdependence between private and public cloud components,
  • Users’ willingness to customize their own cloud platform.

Understanding the difference:

Virtual Machines and Containers represent two different ways to create virtual resources that run applications. The difference between containers and VMs is primarily in the location of the virtualization layer and the way that operating system resources are used.

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