diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 061047de9..bd64cd133 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -10,8 +10,13 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Bugfixes
 
+* Add missing mapping for azure/metrics input. [#1474](https://github.com/elastic/package-registry/pull/1474)
+
 ### Added
 
+* Optimize package loading by reading package ZIP archives and package folders concurrently. [#1489](https://github.com/elastic/package-registry/pull/1489)
+* Allow empty package paths on startup. [#1482](https://github.com/elastic/package-registry/pull/1482)
+
 ### Deprecated
 
 ### Known Issues
diff --git a/internal/workers/taskpool.go b/internal/workers/taskpool.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a3b35abc3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/workers/taskpool.go
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+// Copyright Elasticsearch B.V. and/or licensed to Elasticsearch B.V. under one
+// or more contributor license agreements. Licensed under the Elastic License 2.0;
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the Elastic License 2.0.
+
+package workers
+
+import (
+	"errors"
+	"sync"
+)
+
+type taskPool struct {
+	wg     sync.WaitGroup
+	pool   chan struct{}
+	errC   chan error
+	errors []error
+}
+
+func NewTaskPool(size int) *taskPool {
+	p := &taskPool{
+		pool: make(chan struct{}, size),
+		errC: make(chan error),
+	}
+	go p.errorLoop()
+	return p
+}
+
+func (p *taskPool) errorLoop() {
+	go func() {
+		for err := range p.errC {
+			if err != nil {
+				p.errors = append(p.errors, err)
+			}
+		}
+	}()
+}
+
+// Do runs the task in a goroutine, ensuring no more tasks are running than the size of the pool.
+func (p *taskPool) Do(task func() error) {
+	p.pool <- struct{}{}
+	p.wg.Add(1)
+	go func() {
+		defer func() { <-p.pool }()
+		defer p.wg.Done()
+		p.errC <- task()
+	}()
+}
+
+// Wait waits for all the tasks to finish, and joins the errors found. The pool cannot be used after calling Wait.
+func (p *taskPool) Wait() error {
+	close(p.pool)
+	p.wg.Wait()
+	close(p.errC)
+	return errors.Join(p.errors...)
+}
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index edc22940e..8ac0b2551 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"os/signal"
 	"path/filepath"
+	"runtime"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 	"syscall"
@@ -85,6 +86,7 @@ var (
 	serviceName      = getServiceName()
 
 	packagePathsEnableWatcher = false
+	packagePathsWorkers       = 1
 
 	defaultConfig = Config{
 		CacheTimeIndex:               10 * time.Second,
@@ -132,6 +134,7 @@ func init() {
 	flag.StringVar(&proxyTo, "proxy-to", "https://epr.elastic.co/", "Proxy-to endpoint")
 
 	flag.BoolVar(&packagePathsEnableWatcher, "package-paths-enable-watcher", false, "Enable file system watcher for package paths to automatically detect new packages.")
+	flag.IntVar(&packagePathsWorkers, "package-paths-workers", runtime.GOMAXPROCS(0), "Number of workers to use for reading packages concurrently from the configured paths. Default is the number of CPU cores returned by GOMAXPROCS.")
 }
 
 type Config struct {
@@ -370,7 +373,6 @@ func initMetricsServer(logger *zap.Logger) {
 		}
 	}()
 }
-
 func initIndexer(ctx context.Context, logger *zap.Logger, options serverOptions) Indexer {
 	tx := options.apmTracer.StartTransaction("initIndexer", "backend.init")
 	defer tx.End()
@@ -400,7 +402,10 @@ func initIndexer(ctx context.Context, logger *zap.Logger, options serverOptions)
 		Logger:             logger,
 		EnablePathsWatcher: packagePathsEnableWatcher,
 		APMTracer:          options.apmTracer,
+		PathsWorkers:       packagePathsWorkers,
 	}
+	logger.Debug("Using workers to read packages from package paths", zap.Int("workers", fsOptions.PathsWorkers))
+	logger.Debug("Watching package paths for changes", zap.Bool("enabled", fsOptions.EnablePathsWatcher))
 
 	combined = append(combined,
 		packages.NewZipFileSystemIndexer(fsOptions, packagesBasePaths...),
@@ -753,5 +758,9 @@ func validateFlags() error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("categories cache is just supported with SQL Storage indexer: feature-enable-categories-cache is enabled, but feature-sql-storage-indexer is not enabled")
 	}
 
+	if packagePathsWorkers <= 0 {
+		return fmt.Errorf("package-paths-workers must be greater than 0")
+	}
+
 	return nil
 }
diff --git a/packages/packages.go b/packages/packages.go
index defc96048..3e09d8614 100644
--- a/packages/packages.go
+++ b/packages/packages.go
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
+	"runtime"
 	"slices"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
@@ -22,6 +23,7 @@ import (
 	"go.elastic.co/apm/v2"
 	"go.uber.org/zap"
 
+	"github.com/elastic/package-registry/internal/workers"
 	"github.com/elastic/package-registry/metrics"
 )
 
@@ -119,6 +121,9 @@ type FileSystemIndexer struct {
 
 	enablePathsWatcher bool
 
+	// pathsWorkers is the number of concurrent workers to use when reading packages from the filesystem.
+	pathsWorkers int
+
 	m sync.RWMutex
 
 	apmTracer *apm.Tracer
@@ -128,6 +133,9 @@ type FSIndexerOptions struct {
 	Logger             *zap.Logger
 	EnablePathsWatcher bool
 	APMTracer          *apm.Tracer
+
+	// PathsWorkers is the number of concurrent workers to use when reading packages from the filesystem.
+	PathsWorkers int
 }
 
 // NewFileSystemIndexer creates a new FileSystemIndexer for the given paths.
@@ -159,6 +167,12 @@ func NewFileSystemIndexer(options FSIndexerOptions, paths ...string) *FileSystem
 		options.Logger.Warn("ignoring unexpected file", zap.String("file.path", path))
 		return false, nil
 	}
+
+	// If PathsWorkers is not set or is less than or equal to 0, use the number of CPU cores.
+	pathWorkers := options.PathsWorkers
+	if options.PathsWorkers <= 0 {
+		pathWorkers = runtime.GOMAXPROCS(0)
+	}
 	return &FileSystemIndexer{
 		paths:              paths,
 		label:              fileSystemIndexerName,
@@ -167,6 +181,7 @@ func NewFileSystemIndexer(options FSIndexerOptions, paths ...string) *FileSystem
 		logger:             options.Logger,
 		enablePathsWatcher: options.EnablePathsWatcher,
 		apmTracer:          options.APMTracer,
+		pathsWorkers:       pathWorkers,
 	}
 }
 
@@ -195,6 +210,12 @@ func NewZipFileSystemIndexer(options FSIndexerOptions, paths ...string) *FileSys
 
 		return true, nil
 	}
+
+	// If PathsWorkers is not set or is less than or equal to 0, use the number of CPU cores.
+	pathWorkers := options.PathsWorkers
+	if options.PathsWorkers <= 0 {
+		pathWorkers = runtime.GOMAXPROCS(0)
+	}
 	return &FileSystemIndexer{
 		paths:              paths,
 		label:              zipFileSystemIndexerName,
@@ -203,6 +224,7 @@ func NewZipFileSystemIndexer(options FSIndexerOptions, paths ...string) *FileSys
 		logger:             options.Logger,
 		enablePathsWatcher: options.EnablePathsWatcher,
 		apmTracer:          options.APMTracer,
+		pathsWorkers:       pathWorkers,
 	}
 }
 
@@ -355,40 +377,76 @@ func (i *FileSystemIndexer) getPackagesFromFileSystem(ctx context.Context) (Pack
 		name    string
 		version string
 	}
-	packagesFound := make(map[packageKey]struct{})
 
-	var pList Packages
+	count := 0
 	for _, basePath := range i.paths {
 		packagePaths, err := i.getPackagePaths(basePath)
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
+		count += len(packagePaths)
+	}
+	pList := make(Packages, count)
 
-		i.logger.Info("Searching packages in " + basePath)
-		for _, path := range packagePaths {
-			p, err := NewPackage(i.logger, path, i.fsBuilder)
-			if err != nil {
-				return nil, fmt.Errorf("loading package failed (path: %s): %w", path, err)
-			}
+	taskPool := workers.NewTaskPool(i.pathsWorkers)
+
+	i.logger.Info("Searching packages in filesystem", zap.String("indexer", i.label))
+	count = 0
+	for _, basePath := range i.paths {
+		packagePaths, err := i.getPackagePaths(basePath)
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+		for _, p := range packagePaths {
+			position := count
+			path := p
+			count++
+			taskPool.Do(func() error {
+				p, err := NewPackage(i.logger, path, i.fsBuilder)
+				if err != nil {
+					return fmt.Errorf("loading package failed (path: %s): %w", path, err)
+				}
+
+				pList[position] = p
 
-			key := packageKey{name: p.Name, version: p.Version}
-			if _, found := packagesFound[key]; found {
-				i.logger.Debug("duplicated package",
+				i.logger.Debug("found package",
 					zap.String("package.name", p.Name),
 					zap.String("package.version", p.Version),
 					zap.String("package.path", p.BasePath))
-				continue
-			}
 
-			packagesFound[key] = struct{}{}
-			pList = append(pList, p)
+				return nil
+			})
+		}
+	}
+
+	if err := taskPool.Wait(); err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
 
-			i.logger.Debug("found package",
+	// Remove duplicates while preserving the package discovery order in the paths set in the configuration.
+	// Duplicate removal happens after initial loading all packages in all paths to maintain the order packages
+	// are discovered in the paths set in the configuration. This ensures that when the same package version
+	// exists in multiple paths, we keep the version from the first path in the search order,
+	// not necessarily the first one loaded by the concurrent workers.
+	current := 0
+	packagesFound := make(map[packageKey]struct{})
+	for _, p := range pList {
+		key := packageKey{name: p.Name, version: p.Version}
+		if _, found := packagesFound[key]; found {
+			i.logger.Debug("duplicated package",
 				zap.String("package.name", p.Name),
 				zap.String("package.version", p.Version),
 				zap.String("package.path", p.BasePath))
+			continue
 		}
+		packagesFound[key] = struct{}{}
+		pList[current] = p
+		current++
 	}
+
+	pList = pList[:current]
+	i.logger.Info("Searching packages in filesystem done", zap.String("indexer", i.label), zap.Int("packages.size", len(pList)))
+
 	return pList, nil
 }
 
diff --git a/packages/packages_test.go b/packages/packages_test.go
index 19909bd08..d0280ae2d 100644
--- a/packages/packages_test.go
+++ b/packages/packages_test.go
@@ -16,10 +16,38 @@ import (
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
 	"go.uber.org/zap"
+	"go.uber.org/zap/zapcore"
 
 	"github.com/elastic/package-registry/archiver"
+	"github.com/elastic/package-registry/internal/util"
 )
 
+func BenchmarkInit(b *testing.B) {
+	// given
+	packagesBasePaths := []string{"../testdata/second_package_path", "../testdata/package"}
+
+	testLogger := util.NewTestLoggerLevel(zapcore.FatalLevel)
+	b.ResetTimer()
+	fsOptions := FSIndexerOptions{
+		Logger: testLogger,
+	}
+	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
+		zipIndexer := NewZipFileSystemIndexer(fsOptions, "../testdata/local-storage")
+		dirIndexer := NewFileSystemIndexer(fsOptions, packagesBasePaths...)
+
+		err := zipIndexer.Init(b.Context())
+		require.NoError(b, err)
+
+		err = dirIndexer.Init(b.Context())
+		require.NoError(b, err)
+
+		b.StopTimer()
+		require.NoError(b, zipIndexer.Close(b.Context()))
+		require.NoError(b, dirIndexer.Close(b.Context()))
+		b.StartTimer()
+	}
+}
+
 func TestPackagesFilter(t *testing.T) {
 	filterTestPackages := []filterTestPackage{
 		{