As organizations scale modern workloads — from high-throughput databases and network/security appliances to real-time analytics and AI/ML inference — network and block storage performance can quickly become a bottleneck. Standard virtual machines often struggle to balance compute efficiency with the high-volume data-transfer demands of these applications.
At Google Cloud Next ‘26, we announced C4N in preview, our first network- and block-storage-optimized Google Compute Engine instance that’s purpose-built to eliminate I/O bottlenecks for demanding enterprise applications, and today, it is generally available. Built on Google’s custom-designed Titanium offload architecture, C4N instances offload network and storage tasks to dedicated hardware to unlock incredible performance and compute efficiency. C4N offers up to 400 Gbps of network bandwidth and a market-leading 95 million packets per second (MPPS) — nearly 33% higher network bandwidth per vCPU and 224% faster packet processing performance than comparable Intel-based offerings at other hyperscalers. This performance makes C4N a great fit for network-intensive applications such as virtual appliances (e.g., next-gen firewalls, virtual routers, load balancers, DDoS mitigation), large-scale data analytics, telco applications (5G UPF), distributed compute and CPU-based AI/ML workloads.
Paired with Hyperdisk Extreme, our high-performance block storage, C4N also delivers Compute Engine’s highest block storage performance, scaling up to 25 GiB/s of storage bandwidth and 1M IOPS — nearly 33% higher storage bandwidth and 39% more IOPS per vCPU versus comparable Intel-based offerings, making them a strong choice for large-scale databases, high-performance file systems, in-memory databases, and other workloads that benefit from high block storage performance.
Engineered specifically to deliver predictable, high-throughput I/O performance for networking, packets-per-second-bound and storage-optimized applications, C4N allows customers to scale network, storage, and compute resources more precisely to meet specific workload requirements, delivering significant TCO benefits by eliminating the need to over-provision resources just to meet I/O demands.
C4N is powered by 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors (code-named Emerald Rapids).
“Google Cloud’s introduction of C4N highlights how infrastructure innovation and a strong silicon foundation can help customers address increasingly data-intensive workloads. With Intel Xeon and Custom Infrastructure Processing Unit (IPU), C4N delivers the performance and efficiency needed for demanding network optimized environments.” – Srini Krishna, Intel Fellow, Data Center products, Intel
What’s new: Scaling massive data layers with C4N
Our network-optimized C4N instances are designed to deliver predictable, high-performance I/O at scale. By providing consistent bandwidth, packet-processing performance (PPS), and IOPS scaling across all VM shapes and sizes, C4N helps ensure your most demanding data workloads run reliably. To achieve this, we have built deep resiliency into every layer of our infrastructure — from the host and fabric layers to redundant top-of-rack (ToR) switches — delivering continuous performance for your applications.
Compared to general-purpose C4 VMs, the network-optimized C4N delivers significant performance gains across both network and block storage vectors.
Next-generation network performance
-
Superior VM-to-VM network bandwidth: Achieves up to 400 Gbps of VM-to-VM network bandwidth (an almost 4x increase in BW-per-vCPU over standard C4) and supports up to 50 Gbps single-flow bandwidth between C4N instances routed within the same VPC network. This provides non-blocking data delivery for high-throughput single-stream and multi-stream applications.
-
Enhanced VM-to-internet performance: Benefits from an 8x increase in internet egress network bandwidth, reaching up to 200 Gbps. It also features a nearly 32x increase in internet egress packet processing performance, scaling up to 48 MPPS.
-
Optimized I/O for smaller shapes: Keeps your cloud bill lean by delivering up to 25–50 Gbps of network bandwidth specifically for 2–16 vCPU shapes, great for accelerating I/O-bound tasks without needing to over-provision compute. Furthermore, these smaller shapes introduce predictable, steady-state baseline bandwidth limits to provide consistent performance at a lower cost.
-
Enhanced out-of-the-box networking: gVNIC interfaces on C4N now start with more Tx/Rx queues by default, scaling with vCPUs up to a maximum of 64 (in comparison to 16 queues on C4/C4D).
-
Shorter Google Cloud Storage transfer times: C4N VMs now offer up to a 2x increase in bandwidth to retrieve and store large volumes of data from Cloud Storage, boosting performance for analytics, AI/ML, and backup workloads.
Better yet, this performance is available out of the box, with no add-ons. Designed for high performance from the get-go, C4N offers maximum performance without needing to purchase or configure premium add-ons like Tier_1 networking.
Dynamic storage performance with Hyperdisk
The C4N instance family, when combined with Hyperdisk, can help dynamically tune storage performance, latency, and throughput independently of your compute instance sizing to deliver high block storage performance for your applications. C4N supports the complete Hyperdisk portfolio, including Hyperdisk Balanced, Balanced High Availability, Extreme, Throughput, and ML block storage options.
-
Hyperdisk Extreme: C4N with Hyperdisk Extreme provides low-latency, high-speed data access for modern databases and enterprise AI applications, with up to 25 GiB/s of block storage throughput and nearly 1M IOPS, a 2x increase in storage performance over C4. Also, exclusive to network optimized machine series such as C4N, we now offer Hyperdisk Extreme across all machine sizes — even down to the smallest 2 vCPU sizes.
-
Hyperdisk Balanced: Delivering the highest throughput and IOPS for general-purpose block storage in the Compute Engine portfolio, Hyperdisk Balanced on C4N scales up to 20 GiB/s of block storage throughput and nearly 640K IOPS. This makes it a highly cost-effective option for running storage-intensive applications at scale.
Together, C4N’s network and storage optimizations combine for tremendous impact in real-world applications:
-
Web serving: Up to 1.5x additional Nginx requests per second compared to C4 for typical web request sizes (100–300Kb), significantly boosting capacity for network-bound web applications
-
Databases: Up to 45% better queries per second (QPS) for MySQL when data resides primarily on disk than equivalent C4 VMs
What customers are saying
Industry leaders are already proving that workload-optimized infrastructure is the engine for transformation. Here is how our customers are leveraging the network-optimized power of C4N:
Source Credit: https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/compute/c4n-network-and-storage-optimized-vms/
About the Author
