I completely agree. For some reason they're not 100% ssd and that changes everything. That is the main reason I avoid Azure. Last time I tested (about 8 months ago) I got a new windows server instance with 4gb ram and do a windows update. In my laptop takes 20 minutes, aws takes 40 minutes or so, azure takes almost an entire day! Partly this is because MS doesnt keep their images as updated as AWS, but mostly is because HDD instead of SDD as default. Not advocating anything, just my experience.

what vm type do you have? you have to be careful not to hit the throttle limits otherwise your performance is awful.

what matters is:

- chosen vm size - disk striping (or apps that use multiple disks) - whether you attach with caching on or off, so you can work with both throttles