A-series VMs are divided into two categories. The first one is basic and the second is standard, which is also the class of all other VM series.
A-series VMs are very common and Microsoft deploys them over a variety of hardware types and CPUs. The performance of an A-series VM is throttled, based upon the hardware, to offer consistent processor performance for the running instance, regardless of the hardware.
The differences between Azure A-series basic and standard are the following:
- Availability: Basic tier VMs are only available in small A0-A4 instances for testing purposes; standard tier VMs are available on all size instances and regions.
- Disk IOPS: Data disk IOPS for basic tier VMs are up to 300 lower than standard tier VMs, which have up to 500 IOPS for the data disk.
- Price: The price of a single tier VMs can be up to 27% less expensive than standard tier VMs.
- Feature cut: Basic tier VMs do not include load balancing or auto-scaling options. To achieve those features...