AMD GPUs deliver the first shared GPU instances for Microsoft Azure – NVv4 instances

Today, the first Azure instances utilising GPU partitioning technology became available. These instances effectively enable a large server GPU to be partitioned, supplying VMs with an appropriately sized GPU, and opening the way for potential savings in the cost for GPU-enabled cloud VMs.

Key to adoption of AMD GPUs by Microsoft Azure was the alignment of our SR-IOV based MxGPU hardware-sharing technologies to Microsoft Hyper-V’s own GPU-P technologies. This is clear validation of our strategy at AMD to work with Microsoft over many years to align with their roadmap resulting in the first GPU sharing solution on Azure, acceptable in terms of user segregation, security features and quality of service. Our virtualised GPU sharing technologies have already been proven with other hypervisors including VMware ESXi and the Citrix Hypervisor (XenServer). This is however the first time GPU sharing has been enabled for a Hyper-V based platform with Azure.

The result is a portfolio of instances leveraging both AMD CPUs and GPUs that are sized to the realistic needs of users; ranging from smaller instances that align to the needs of Office workers or Mobile CAD workstations (2 and 4 GB equivalent GPU resource) to larger instances that can support heavier graphical needs and session sharing like needs. AMD professional GPU drivers are offered free along with these instances.

vCPU Memory GPU memory Azure network Standard_NV4as_v4 4 14 GB 2 GB 50 Gbps Standard_NV8as_v4 8 28 GB 4 GB 50 Gbps Standard_NV16as_v4 16 56 GB 8 GB 50 Gbps Standard_NV32as_v4 32 112 GB 16 GB 50 Gbps

Initially NVv4 instances will be available in Azure Regions early next year in the South Central US and West Europe Azure regions.

Sign-up for preview using this link: https://aka.ms/NVv4Signup

AMD Technology enables Microsoft Azure at Ignite 2019 Microsoft the preview; the interest it attracted in the booth but also in the End User Computing (EUC) and similar communities was fantastic, and it was great to speak to so many users about their enthusiasm for the options. I was cheered to see a blog by cloud community expert Marius Sandbu that covered the announcement but also caught the spirit of what we had hoped to convey.

Useful Links:

AMD at Microsoft Ignite

Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

George Watkins is a Datacenter GPU Marketing Manager for AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.