Google: Google Cloud Boosts Performance with New AMD-Powered VMs

In an attempt to boost efficiency, performance and scalability for a wide range of cloud workloads, Google Cloud has introduced C4D and H4D virtual machines (VMs). These VMs will utilise 5th Gen AMD EPYC processors to improve leadership performance across web serving, data analytics, HPC and AI. Compared to previous generations, the AMD Zen 5 architecture allowed C4D to offer up to 80% higher throughput/vCPU. Both the H4D and C4D virtual machines are available in preview now. They are planned to be available across multiple global regions later in the year. Dan McNamara, SVP and GM, Server Business at AMD, explains: "Since our launch, 5th Gen AMD EPYC solutions have been widely adopted across our OEM partners, enterprise customers and now we're excited to bring it to the cloud. "Our deep technology partnership with Google Cloud enabled them to rapidly adopt the latest AMD EPYC processors to deliver consistent high performance and cost-efficient instances for their most demanding customers." Google Cloud's C4D VMs are designed to offer high efficiency and performance for several general-purpose workloads. C4D VMs can achieve a core frequency of up to 4.1GHz, offering a 55% increase in MySQL queries per second, up to 80% higher throughput per virtual CPU (vCPU) for web-serving tasks and a 35% boost in Redis performance. The VMs are enhanced by Google's Titanium platform and are powered by AMD's 5th Gen EPYC processors. C4D VMs offer up to 3TB of DDR5 memory and are available in 49 predefined configurations, ranging from 2 to 384vCPUs. Basil Shikin, CTO, AppLovin, points to the impact Google Cloud's C4D VMs had on their business. "AppLovin, a global leader in mobile advertising, is constantly looking for cutting-edge infrastructure innovations to deliver exceptional performance for our clients," he says. "Google Cloud's C4D VMs enable us to do just that - driving a ~40% improvement over the prior generation, which leads to significant efficiency gains and latency reduction." Google Cloud's H4D VMs offer the best-in-class compute capabilities for engineering and scientific applications and are purpose-built for HPC workloads. The H4D VMs offer more than 12,000 flops, memory bandwidth exceeding 950GB/s and are powered by 5th Gen AMD EPYC CPUs. The H4D VMs enable efficient communication between clusters of more than 10,000 cores by being equipped with 200Gbps of low-latency Titanium RDM network bandwidth. By doing so, enterprises and researchers can run data analysis workloads and large-scale simulations faster and more effectively. Eric Lequiniou, SVP Radioss Development and Altair Solvers HPC, explains: "The generational performance leap achieved with Google H4D VMs, powered by the 5th Generation AMD EPYC, is truly remarkable. "For compute-intensive, highly non-linear simulations such as car crash analysis, Altair Radioss delivers a stunning 3.6-times speedup. This breakthrough paves the way for faster and more accurate simulations, which is crucial for our customers in the era of the digital thread." Google Cloud and AMD's partnership provides an insight into the evolution of cloud services, enterprise computing and high-performance workloads. By integrating 5th Gen AMD EPYC processors into Google Cloud's H4D and C4D VMs, the collaboration will offer greater scalability and memory bandwidth for HPC, throughput for general-purpose workloads and inference for AI-driven applications. The expanded use of AMD chips will create competitive pressure on other cloud providers, encouraging chipmakers to deliver more high-performance and energy-efficient designs. This diversification of chip architectures will promote multi-vendor, open infrastructure strategies. The H4D VMs are built for AI and HPC workloads, helping to catalyse the development of AI and scientific computing. Mark Lohmeyer, VP and GM, Compute and Machine Learning Infrastructure at Google Cloud, explains: "Google Cloud is committed to delivering high-performance, secure, and scalable compute solutions to our customers. "With the introduction of C4D and H4D instances powered by AMD EPYC processors, businesses can benefit from cutting-edge performance and efficiency, tailored to their cloud-native and enterprise applications." Google Cloud and AMD help to democratise access to supercomputing-grade infrastructure by combining massive parallel processing and low-latency networking. The C4D VMs ensure data is encrypted at rest, in transit and during processing to ensure trust in multi-tenant environments and more secure cloud-native applications. The Google Cloud-AMD partnership will balance efficiency, performance and security to help modernise cloud infrastructure. Partnerships like this will help expand the possibilities of the cloud, catalyse the next wave of big data and AI and power the future of the digital economy. Explore the latest edition of Technology Magazine and be part of the conversation at our global conference series, Tech & AI LIVE . Discover all our upcoming events and secure your tickets today. Technology Magazine is a BizClik brand CEO Andy Jassy highlights AI investments and custom chips in annual Amazon shareholder letter amid triple-digit growth ... In the role since June 2024, Cassandra Garber announces her departure from Dell after more than three years with the company ... 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