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A few months ago, Google Cloud launched C4A as a virtual machine (VM) instance powered by Axion, its first Arm-based CPU. Now, as the next step in this work, it debuts C4A with Titanium SSDs — its custom-designed local disks aimed at improving storage and performance.
With this move, Google is strengthening its C4A portfolio and offering VMs that can further boost cloud performance for workloads that require real-time data processing. The VMs, as the company says, combine ultra-low latency and high-throughput storage with cost efficiency, creating the perfect package for running applications such as high-performance databases, analytics engine and search.
Currently, Google Cloud makes these C4A VMs with Titanium SSD available with services like Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Batch and Dataproc. Standard C4A VMs are also available in preview on Dataflow, with support for Cloud SQL, AlloyDB and other pipeline services.
What to expect from Google's C4A VMs with Titanium SSDs?
Google Cloud C4A instances typically come with three storage options: Persistent Disk, Hyperdisk or Local SSD. Persistent Disk is the standard block storage service where performance is shared between volumes of the same type. Hyperdisk, on the other hand, provides dedicated performance, supporting up to 350,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) and 5 GB/s throughput per volume — delivering better performance than Persistent Disk.
However, in some workloads, especially those that require local storage capacity, even Hyperdisk can struggle. This is where local SSDs come in, with Titanium SSDs being the latest innovation in the category.
The new C4A instances with Titanium SSDs deliver up to 2.4M random read input/output operations per second, 10.4 GiB/s of read throughput, and 35% lower access latency compared to previous generation SSDs.
Titanium SSDs, attached directly to compute instances within the host server, offload storage and networking tasks from the CPU, freeing up resources to boost application security and throughput performance. This change comes from Google's Titanium system. It enables offloading work from the host CPU to a system of custom silicon, hardware and software on-host and across the company data centersconnected to the host CPU using the Titanium Offload Processor.
The configuration offered
At its core, the new C4A family with Titanium SSDs has up to 72 vCPUs, 576 GB memory, and 6 TB of local storage. Enterprises can choose between Standard (4 GB/vCPU) and High-memory (8 GB/vCPU) configurations. Connectivity options, on the other hand, can scale up to 100 Gbps.
All of these can easily support high-traffic workloads with real-time data processing such as web/app servers, high-performance databases, data analytics engine and search Additionally, it can enable applications that require in-memory caching, media streaming and transcoding and CPU-based AI/ML.
“C4A…provides up to 65% better price performance and up to 60% better energy efficiency than comparable current-generation x86-based instances. Together, C4A and Titanium SSDs deliver industry-leading price-performance for a wide range of Arm-compatible general-purpose workloads,” wrote Varun Shah and Nate Baum, senior product managers at Google Cloud, in a joint blog post.
Early adopters have seen 40% higher throughput
While C4A VMs with Titanium SSDs are now generally available, some early adopters are already seeing performance gains from them. These include big names like Couchbase and Elastic.
Matt McDonough, SVP of product and partners at Couchbase, highlighted how Capella Columnar, running on Google Axion C4A instances with Titanium SSDs, delivers unmatched price performance benefits, ultra-low latency and scalable compute power for analytic and operational workloads. Similarly, Elastic's Uri Cohen said the company has observed 40% higher throughput than previous VM generations.
C4A VMs with Titanium SSDs are now generally available in key regions, including the US, Europe and Asia, with plans to expand further. Customers can access them through on-demand, Spot VMs and discounted pricing options.
With significant improvements in performance, energy efficiency and scalability, C4A VMs with Titanium SSDs meet modern enterprise needs, setting a new benchmark for cloud workloads.
