Microsoft Launches Mbv4 VM Series for SAP Workloads on Azure

Microsoft has announced the public preview of the new Mbv4 virtual machine series for Azure. The new generation expands on the earlier MBv3 family by offering improved storage capabilities, stronger performance, and enhanced reliability.

According to Microsoft, existing infrastructure can struggle to keep up with growing memory demands, large data volumes, and increasing performance expectations. As databases expand and business processes become more complex, companies often encounter storage bottlenecks, slower data access, and limitations in scaling critical workloads.

“This new release delivers both storage-optimized and memory-optimized configurations, combined with enhanced security features, and powered by the latest Azure Boost technologies for improved performance efficiency, enabling customers to run data-intensive and mission-critical workloads with greater confidence, scalability, and cost effectiveness,” Microsoft explained.

New Mbv4 VMs target SAP and memory-intensive workloads

The new Mbv4 virtual machines are designed for organizations running large-scale SAP environments and other memory-intensive business applications. Microsoft has introduced two variants, including Mbsv4 and Mbdsv4. Specifically, Mbsv4 focuses on maximizing memory performance, and Mbdsv4 adds substantial local storage capacity for data-heavy workloads.

These VMs are built on the latest Intel Xeon Scalable processors and enhanced with Azure Boost technology. They provide faster processing, improved efficiency, and greater scalability for applications such as enterprise databases, analytics platforms, and mission-critical systems. The Mbv4 series brings significant improvement in storage and reliability capabilities. The platform delivers higher remote storage throughput and I/O performance than previous generations and accelerates local NVMe storage access.

Azure Mbv4 VMs public preview now available in select US regions

Microsoft has also incorporated advanced security features (such as memory protection and trusted boot capabilities) as well as infrastructure enhancements to reduce the impact of hardware or network failures. These improvements give organizations a more secure, resilient, and flexible foundation for modernizing and scaling their SAP workloads in Azure.

Microsoft notes that the new Mbv4 VMs are currently available in public preview in East US 2 and East US. They are available in both disk-based and diskless configurations, which allows organizations to choose the model that best fits their workload and cost requirements.