On April 5th, Microsoft announced the general availability of their new memory optimized Ebds_v5 Azure Virtual Machines. Generally available: Azure Virtual Machines increase storage throughput by up to 300% | Azure update...
Details of this new instance can be found here. Ebdsv5 and Ebsv5 series - Azure Virtual Machines | Microsoft Docs
SAS has tested this new instance and can report that this new instance has increased the IO throughput needed for SAS applications to process large volumes of data using remotely attached Premium storage. MS Azure has increased the maximum IO throughput to external storage in the Ebds_v5 instances significantly. By increasing the max IO throughput value there is no longer a need to constrain cores in the instance, like was needed with Eds_v3 and Eds_v4 instances, to meet the IO throughput needs of SAS applications.
Please work with your local Microsoft team to determine where you can access these new instance types. And enjoy running SAS on them.