Keynote Interview: AMD's Steve Berg on the Hardware Behind Cosmos DB | Azure Cosmos DB Conf 2026

Steve Berg — Corporate Vice President & GM, Server CPU Cloud at AMD — joins Kirill Gavrylyuk at Azure Cosmos DB Conf 2026 to talk about the silicon quietly powering one of the world's largest distributed databases. Inside this clip from the keynote: • Why every Request Unit ultimately lands on a CPU core — and why that matters • Nearly a decade of AMD EPYC in the Azure cloud, generation over generation • How AMD EPYC powers Azure Cosmos DB across datacenters worldwide • 3D V-Cache, higher core counts, and what they unlock for database workloads • Up to 35% more performance and performance-per-dollar with the newest EPYC generation • How AMD ↔ Microsoft co-engineering feeds features like autoscale, RU pooling, and serverless • The hardware/software feedback loop optimizing for performance per dollar per watt 👤 Connect with Steve Berg 📝 Steve Berg is CVP & GM, Server CPU Cloud at AMD, leading platform enablement for AMD hyperscale accounts with 29+ years in cloud infrastructure and semiconductors. 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/berg-steve/ 🎤 https://developer.azurecosmosdb.com/conf/#speaker/steve-berg 👤 Connect with Kirill Gavrylyuk 📝 Kirill Gavrylyuk is Vice President for Azure Cosmos DB at Microsoft, leading product and engineering since the Azure Cosmos DB launch in 2017. 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirillgavrylyuk/ 🎤 https://developer.azurecosmosdb.com/conf/#speaker/kirill-gavrylyuk --- Azure Cosmos DB Conf 2026 is a free virtual developer event focused on building modern, scalable applications with Azure Cosmos DB. Sessions feature Microsoft engineers, product teams, and members of the global developer community sharing real-world solutions and best practices. Originally streamed on April 28, 2026 | 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM PT 🔗 Useful Links • Watch the full keynote — https://aka.ms/CosmosConf26Keynote • Explore all sessions on-demand — https://aka.ms/CosmosConf26Playlist • Take the Cosmos Conf Challenge. First 500 to complete gets a voucher for 100%