If hardware price squeezes make you sad, VMware says it will all end in tiers
- ID
- 20134
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 01 Sep 2026, 1:06 PM
- Fetched
- 01 Sep 2026, 3:22 PM
- Provider
- The Register
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.theregister.com/virtualization/2026/09/01/if-hardware-price-squeezes-make-you-sad-vmware-says-it-will-all-end-in-tiers/5293575
- Source URL
- https://www.theregister.com/headlines.atom
Summary
- Score
- 4.5
- Created
- 01 Sep 2026, 3:22 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersdatabase_learnerssaas_founders
What happened
VMware is expanding its memory tiering technology—introduced in Cloud Foundation 9 and refined in VCF 9.1 for database workloads—because DRAM now costs several times more than the servers it sits in, driven by the AI boom. Dave Morera, staff technical marketing architect, outlined a 2-3 year roadmap with VCF 9.2 likely arriving around May 2027, aiming to push beyond the current ~75% workload support by adding Microsoft Radius and 'monster VMs' with up to 960 vCPUs and 16TB of memory.
Why it matters
If you run VMware Cloud Foundation and are deferring server purchases due to RAM costs, VCF 9.1's database-tiering improvements and dashboards are available now to help densify existing hosts. Everyone else should note that DRAM pricing pressure from AI demand is structural, not transient—budget for higher memory costs in infrastructure planning through at least 2027.
Discussion angle
DRAM costing multiples of the server itself changes the economics of self-hosting vs cloud—worth discussing whether Malaysian startups running on-prem or hybrid should reconsider memory-heavy workloads given this pricing environment.