OVERVIEW
Unlock high-performance, cloud-native storage for your Kubernetes workloads
- Deliver a cloud-native storage layer for Kubernetes that unlocks demanding performance for stateful, data-intensive workloads. With v2.0.0 support for local NVMe disks on AKS nodes, Azure Container Storage offers sub-millisecond latency, high IOPS, and aggregated throughput by striping across NVMe drives. Power databases, streaming platforms, and AI pipelines with the fastest storage option for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
- Use with Azure Kubernetes Service or integrate Azure Container Storage directly with Kubernetes APIs, enabling developers and operators to provision, manage, and scale persistent storage through familiar Kubernetes workflows, treating storage as a native part of the application lifecycle.
- Enable scaling out containerized applications with all-new support for Azure Elastic SAN in version v.2.1.0. Support rapid provisioning and attachment of hundreds of persistent volumes per cluster. By consolidating smaller volumes under a single, high-capacity SAN, customers achieve significant savings in both storage costs and management overhead.
- Support demanding workloads such as PostgreSQL, Kafka, vector databases, and AI-driven applications. With significant performance improvements in v2.0.0, Azure Container Storage enables faster data access and consistent performance for workloads that rely on low latency and high throughput.
- Get the transparency, flexibility, and community-driven innovation of open source with Azure Container Storage v2.0.0+, combined with Azure’s enterprise-grade performance, reliability, security, and rich cloud ecosystem.
FEATURES
Discover modern cloud-native storage capabilities built for Kubernetes
Enable Kubernetes-native volume orchestration
Create, manage, and orchestrate persistent volumes directly through native Kubernetes APIs and storage classes. Seamlessly handle provisioning, expansion, deletion, and lifecycle operations using tools your teams already know—no extra platforms or drivers required.
Enjoy ultra-fast performance with local NVMe support
Experience sub-millisecond latency, high IOPS, and high throughput by striping data across local NVMe disks; enabling performance-critical workloads such as databases and AI to operate at scale with consistent, predictable performance.
Scale storage with Azure Elastic SAN
Provision a cost-optimized SAN with fast volume creation and millisecond-level attach and detach times to support high-performance, stateful Kubernetes workloads at scale.
Deploy Azure Container Storage with flexible installation options
Use the Azure CLI, Terraform, or Helm to install Azure Container Storage, enabling modular, on-demand deployments for open-source environments.
Run stateful workloads with flexible volume types
Use persistent volumes designed for databases, analytics, and streaming workloads, with native integration into Kubernetes APIs to ensure portability and consistent operations.
Integrate with AKS and Kubernetes environments
Support Kubernetes clusters running on Azure through open source variants and utilize tight integration with Azure Kubernetes Service. Deploy only the components required for local NVMe, Elastic SAN, or both, simplifying operations and reducing cluster overhead.
Pricing
Get started for free with v2.0+
Azure Container Storage v2.0+ has no usage fees, you only pay for underlying storage. Previous versions follow tiered pricing; see our pricing page for more details.
RELATED PRODUCTS
Azure products work better together
Resources
Get started with resources to build and run stateful Kubernetes workloads
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
- Azure Container Storage supports only Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) today. Deploy and manage volumes consistently across various backend storage options such as local storage and persistent block storage while using AKS.
- See the Azure Container Storage quickstart.
- Azure Container Storage is built natively for containers and provides a storage solution that is highly optimized for creating and managing volumes for running production-scale stateful container applications. It provides higher performance and availability than Azure CSI drivers. Additionally, Azure Container Storage supports storage types such as local NVMe and Azure Elastic SAN, which are not supported by the Azure Disk CSI driver.
- Azure Container Storage works well for all stateful ReadWriteOnce (RWO) workloads.
- Yes. See the Quickstart to learn how to enable Azure Container Storage in an existing AKS cluster.
- Yes, see here: Scale your stateful apps with Azure Container Storage | Microsoft Learn. You can also check out code samples here: Azure-Samples/azure-container-storage-samples: Azure Container Storage code samples (github.com).
Next steps
Choose the Azure account that’s right for you
Pay as you go or try Azure free for up to 30 days.
Documentation
New to Azure Container Storage?
Start with our comprehensive documentation.
Deployment guide
Deploying specific workloads?
Check out our updated deployment guide for PostgreSQL.
GitHub repository
Want the open-source version?
Visit our GitHub repository for installation instructions.
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