title: Azure 500 IOPS equivalent HD speed?
body: <p>In azure, each Virtual Machine can have a certain number of drives attached each with a maximum speed of 500 IOPS. See <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/dn197896.aspx" rel="nofollow">VM specifications</a></p>
  
  <p>I am configuring a SQL server and trying to gauge what the equivalent drive speed would be in traditional hard drives sense for sizing a striped set?</p>
  
  <p>Would a 500 IOPS VHD be the equivalent of:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>SATA II</li>
  <li>SCSI 10K</li>
  <li>SCSI 15K</li>
  <li>SSD</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>I understand that this is not going to be accurate, but it could prove useful as a simple guide for migration from traditional HDD setup.</p>