Microsoft takes the wraps off its Arm-based Azure VMs TechRadar Skip to main content TechRadar is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's why you can trust us. Microsoft takes the wraps off its Arm-based Azure VMs By Will McCurdy published 30 August 2022 Azure users now have a viable alternative to x86 processor-based VMs (Image credit: Shutterstock/Illus_man) Audio player loading… Microsoft is set to launch Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) featuring the Ampere Altra Arm-based processor. Ampere is an American fabless semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, which launched in 2018 in a bid to take a bite out of the data center hardware market which had up until that point been dominated by Intel and AMD. Though hardware from UK-based Arm has long been omnipresent in the smartphone and consumer electronics space, x86 processors such as those provided by Intel and AMD have generally held sway in the cloud computing market. What can these machines do The new Azure Arm-based virtual machines available include the Dpsv5 series, which offers up to 64 vCPUs and 4GBs of memory per vCPU up to 208 GBs. In addition, customers will also be able to access the Dplsv5 series, which offers up to 64 vCPUs and 2GBs of memory per vCPU up to 128 GBs, and the Epsv5 series, which offers up to 32 vCPUs and 8GBs of memory per vCPU up to 208 GBs. All the new virtual machine sizes will support up to 40 Gbps of networking bandwidth and support attached standard SSDs, standard HDDs, premium SSDs, and ultra disk storage. The Dpdv5, Dpldv5, and Epdv5 virtual machine series also include fast local-SSD storage according to Microsoft.READ MORE:> Microsoft Azure has a new top gaming partner > New Windows 11 VMs could give you the perfect way to try before you switch > Our guide to the best cloud hosting But it's not just Microsoft that is looking to incorporate Arm-based VMs into their lineups. The new Arm-based Tau T2A chips (opens in new tab) will join Google's existing line of Tau VMs, which were launched in June 2021. Google says the new chips will be appropriate for scale-out workloads including web servers, containerized microservices, data-logging processing, media transcoding, and Java applications. The new virtual machines will be generally available on September 1, and customers can already launch them in 10 Azure regions and in multiple availability zones around the world. Prices will vary by region, and if you can't wait to get started, head here to start on Azure Arm-based Virtual Machines and AKS containers immediately.Interested in running VMs? Checkout our guide to best cloud hosting Will McCurdyWill McCurdy has been writing about technology for over five years. He has a wide range of specialities including cybersecurity, fintech, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, cloud computing, payments, artificial intelligence, retail technology, and venture capital investment. He has previously written for AltFi, FStech, Retail Systems, and National Technology News and is an experienced podcast and webinar host, as well as an avid long-form feature writer. See more Computing news Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to theTechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Thank you for signing up to TechRadar. You will receive a verification email shortly. There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again. MOST POPULARMOST SHARED1The iPhone 14 Pro is made of the wrong stuff; the Pixel 7 proves that to me2Stop saying Mario doesn't have an accent in The Super Mario Bros. Movie3Google Pixel Tablet is what Apple should've done ages ago4RTX 4090 too expensive? Nvidia resurrects another old favorite5More than one million credit card details leaked online1The iPhone 14 Pro is made of the wrong stuff; the Pixel 7 proves that to me2iPhone 15 tipped to come with an upgraded 5G chip3If this feature succeeds for Modern Warfare 2, Microsoft can't ignore it4Apple October launches: the new devices we might see this month5The Rings of Power episode 8 trailer feels like one big Sauron misdirect Technology Magazines (opens in new tab)● (opens in new tab)The best tech tutorials and in-depth reviewsFrom$12.99 (opens in new tab)View (opens in new tab)