Google Cloud C4N VMs: Network & Storage I/O Beast Goes GA

Google Cloud just dropped the GA bomb on their C4N instances, and if you’ve been wrestling with I/O bottlenecks, it’s time to pop open a cold one and celebrate. These network- and block-storage-optimized VMs are purpose-built to chew through data like a capybara through waterweed—fast, efficient, and without breaking a sweat.

What’s the Big Deal?

C4N instances offload network and storage tasks to Google’s custom Titanium hardware, freeing up CPU cycles for your actual workload. The result? Up to 400 Gbps network bandwidth and a mind-blowing 95 million packets per second (MPPS). That’s nearly 33% higher network bandwidth per vCPU and 224% faster packet processing than comparable Intel-based offerings from other hyperscalers. In other words, the caimans are left snapping at bubbles.

Performance That Makes You Go “Wow”

• VM-to-VM bandwidth: Up to 400 Gbps (4x more per vCPU than standard C4).
• Internet egress: 200 Gbps with 48 MPPS—32x more packet processing.
• Small shapes, big I/O: 25–50 Gbps for 2–16 vCPU shapes, so you don’t over-provision.
• Hyperdisk Extreme: Up to 25 GiB/s storage bandwidth and 1M IOPS—33% more per vCPU than competitors.

And the best part? This performance comes out of the box—no premium add-ons needed. Just spin up a C4N and watch your data flow like a lazy river.

Real-World Wins

Early adopters are already reaping the rewards. Ericsson hit a 1 Tbps milestone with their 5G Core-as-a-Service. Teradata saw strong price-performance for I/O-intensive analytics. And Sycomp achieved 58.5 GiB/s read/write with just three storage servers—97% of the theoretical ceiling. Not bad for a Tuesday.

Shapes and Specs

C4N comes in nine sizes, from 2 to 192 vCPUs, with up to 1.5 TB of DDR5 memory. Choose from high-cpu, standard, or high-mem configurations. Local SSD options (up to 12 TiB) are coming soon in preview. And for those who need bare metal, that’s on the horizon too.

Get Started

C4N instances are now GA in us-central1, us-east1, us-east5, us-west1, and europe-west2. You can grab them on-demand, as Spot VMs, or with reservations. Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) are available for one- and three-year terms. Head to the Google Cloud console and look for “Network Optimized” under machine families. Your data will thank you.

For more details, check out our Google Cloud Review and see how C4N stacks up against other cloud options.

Original announcement published on Google Cloud.