# Outdated and expensive Standard SSD disk | Cloud Efficiency Hub Canonical: https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/outdated-and-expensive-standard-ssd-disk Standard SSD disks can sometimes be replaced with Premium SSD v2 disks, which offer higher IOPS and throughput and let you set capacity, IOPS, and... By: PointFive Updated: 2026-09-28 [Cloud Efficiency Hub](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub) # Outdated and Expensive Standard SSD Disk The short version Standard SSD disks can sometimes be replaced with Premium SSD v2 disks, which offer higher IOPS and throughput and let you set capacity, IOPS, and throughput independently. PointFive Research Cloud cost research at PointFive Azure service [Azure Managed Disks](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/azure-managed-disks) Category [Storage](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/service-category/storage) Reference CER-0010 Type Outdated Version ## Explanation Why the waste happens and who it affects. Microsoft positions Premium SSD v2 as generally less costly than Premium SSD, not Standard SSD, and its capacity costs more per GiB than Standard SSD. Savings over Standard SSD arise mainly for disks that are performance-constrained, pay significant transaction charges, or are heavily oversized because of Standard SSD's fixed size tiers. For lightly used disks, Standard SSD usually remains the cheaper option. ## Billing model The pricing dimensions that drive this cost. Standard SSD disks are billed per provisioned size tier per month, plus per-transaction charges up to an hourly cap. Premium SSD v2 is billed per provisioned GiB, with a baseline of 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s included and extra charges for IOPS and throughput set above that baseline. Compare the total capacity, transaction, and performance cost of both options before migrating. ## How to detect 5 checks to find it in your estate. - Identify Managed Disks using the Standard SSD offering that are eligible for migration to Premium SSD v2 - Review workload performance requirements to confirm suitability for Premium SSD v2 characteristics - Verify regional availability of Premium SSD v2 before planning migration - Evaluate disk attachment patterns and application dependencies to ensure compatibility during transition - Validate proposed changes with infrastructure teams to align with performance, availability, and cost goals ## How to fix How to remove the waste. Migrate eligible Standard SSD data disks to Premium SSD v2 where the cost comparison favors it or the extra performance is needed. Premium SSD v2 can't be used as an OS disk, doesn't support host caching, and in most regions with availability zones can only be attached to zonal VMs. Direct conversion requires stopping (deallocating) and restarting the VM, so schedule it in a maintenance window; migration from incremental snapshots is also supported. Update infrastructure provisioning standards to default to Premium SSD v2 where appropriate to maintain ongoing optimization. ## Documentation Vendor references for pricing and configuration. - [Azure Premium SSD v2 Disks Overview learn.microsoft.com](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/disks-types#premium-ssd-v2) - [Azure Managed Disks Pricing azure.microsoft.com](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/managed-disks/) - [Convert managed disks storage between different disk types learn.microsoft.com](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/disks-convert-types) ## Related inefficiencies [Browse the library](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub) - Azure Managed Disks CER-0121 ### [Outdated and Expensive Premium SSD Disk](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/outdated-and-expensive-premium-ssd-disk) Workloads using legacy Premium SSD managed disks may be eligible for migration to Premium SSD v2, which delivers equivalent or improved performance characteristics at a lower cost. Premium SSD v2 decouples disk size from performance... Storage - Azure Managed Disks CER-0338 ### [Underutilized Azure Managed Disk Reservations](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/underutilized-azure-managed-disk-reservations) Azure Managed Disk reservations allow organizations to pre-purchase Premium SSD capacity at a discounted rate by committing to a one-year term. However, these reservations operate on a strict use-it-or-lose-it basis - if reserved disk... Storage - Azure Managed Disks CER-0094 ### [Missing Performance Plus on Eligible Managed Disks](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/missing-performance-plus-on-eligible-managed-disks) For Premium SSD, Standard SSD, and Standard HDD managed disks 513 GiB or larger, Azure now offers the option to enable Performance Plus - unlocking higher IOPS and MBps at no extra cost. Many environments that previously required custom... Storage --- Source: the public page above. 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