Direct Upload of Azure Managed Disks is generally available

Today, customers can bring an on-premises VHD to Azure as a managed disk in two ways: copy the VHD into a storage account before converting it into a managed disk, or attach an empty managed disk to a virtual machine and do a copy. Both of these have disadvantages. The first option requires maintaining storage accounts, while the second option has the additional cost of running virtual machines. Direct upload addresses both these issues and provides a simplified workflow by allowing you to copy an on-premises VHD directly into an empty managed disk. You can use it to upload to Standard HDD, Standard SSD, and Premium SSD managed disks of all the supported sizes.

Independent software vendors (ISV) providing backup solutions for IaaS virtual machines in Azure, can leverage Direct Upload to restore the customers’ backups to managed disks. Direct Upload helps ISVs simplify the restore process by getting away from storage account management. Our Azure Backup support for large managed disks is powered by direct-upload. It uses direct upload to restore large managed disks.

For faster copy, the AzCopy tool also added support for Direct Upload. AzCopy is designed to support large-scale data movement in Azure. Customers can use AzCopy to copy an on-premises VHD into an empty managed disk and also copy a managed disk to another Azure region for regional migration or expansion.

For increased productivity Azure Storage Explorer also added support for managed disks! It exposes Direct Upload via an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI), enabling you to migrate your local VHD files to managed disks in few clicks. Moreover, it also leverages Direct Upload to enable you to copy and migrate your managed disks seamlessly to another Azure region.

Read the Direct Upload Documentation to learn more.