Broadleaf Reviews VMware vSphere 5.0- Why the changes? What do they mean?

With the introduction of vSphere 5, VMware is changing the licensing model to provide the opportunity for customers to move to a more cloud-like, “pay for consumption” approach. The changes set the stage for a more modern IT cost model that is based on consumption and value rather than components and capacity.  The buzz on the new model seems to center around vRAM or virtual RAM. vRAM is the total memory configured to virtual machines.

VMware vSphere 5 is licensed on a per-processor basis with a vRAM entitlement. Each vSphere 5 processor license comes with an entitlement to a certain amount of vRAM capacity or memory configured to virtual machines. In vSphere 4, core and physical entitlements are tied to a server and cannot be shared among multiple hosts but in vSphere 5 the vRAM entitlements of vSphere 5 licenses are pooled or aggregated across all vSphere servers managed by a vCenter Server instance or multiple vCenter Server instances in Linked Mode. Virtual machines can now grow four times larger than in any previous release to support even the largest applications. Virtual machines (VM) can now have up to 32 virtual CPUs and 1 TB of RAM.

What are the advantages of the vRAM licensing model?

• Simplicity- removes two physical constraints (core and physical RAM), replacing them with a single virtual entitlement (vRAM) . This provides a clear path to license vSphere on next-generation hardware configurations.
• Flexibility- allows the aggregation and sharing of vRAM entitlement across a large pool of servers
• Value- provides better alignment of cost with actual use rather than with hardware configurations and capacity