One vendor is happy RAM prices are high: VMware

"VMware has always promoted VCF 9 memory tiering as offering the chance to reduce infrastructure costs by reducing the amount of RAM needed in new servers, and by creating the opportunity to upgrade the NVMe drives in old boxes and effectively increase their memory capacity."

"But VMware's memory tiering is currently superior to the alternative Compute Express Link (CXL). Virtzilla's customers therefore need to consider VCF 9, especially if pondering the fact that AMD's and Intel's most recent releases of manycore CPUs have created an excellent reason to consider a new round of server consolidation."

"But VMware does not require every host in a cluster to implement memory tiering. VCF 9 therefore means those contemplating a fresh round of server consolidation have a new option to consider as they consider future architectures."

VMware Cloud Foundation 9 features memory tiering technology that transfers data from RAM to NVMe storage, addressing high memory costs. This innovation reduces required RAM in new servers and allows upgrading NVMe drives in existing systems to increase effective memory capacity. While VMware promotes cost savings through reduced RAM needs and server consolidation opportunities, the technology has limitations—it doesn't suit latency-sensitive workloads or very large VMs, and NVMe storage costs have also risen. However, VCF 9's memory tiering currently outperforms alternative solutions like Compute Express Link. Recent manycore CPU releases from AMD and Intel enable significant server consolidation, with Dell and Intel reporting 7-to-1 and 5-to-1 consolidation ratios respectively. VCF 9 offers flexibility by not requiring all cluster hosts to implement memory tiering.

Read at Theregister