VMware Getting Rid of vRAM Licensing (vTax)?

(Update 8/21/12: VMware has a comment on the rumors [they say check next week])

A colleague pointed me to this article, which apparently indicates that with vSphere 5.1 VMware is getting rid of vRAM (couch vTax cough). I have found an appropriate animated GIF that both communicates my feelings, as well as the sweet dance moves I have just performed.

Nailed it

If this turns out to be true, it’s awesome. Even if most organizations weren’t currently affected by vTax, it’s almost certain they would soon as they refreshed their server and blade models that gleefully include obscene amounts of RAM. With Cisco’s UCS for example, you can get a half-width blade (the B230 M2) and cram it with 512 GB of RAM. Or a full-width blade (B420 M3) and stuff it with 1.5 TB of RAM. The later is a 4 socket system, and to license it for the full 1.5 TB of RAM would require buying not 4 licenses, but 16, making the high-RAM systems far more expensive to license.

That was darkest side of vRAM, even if you weren’t affected by it today, it was only a matter of time. One might say that it’s… A TRAP, as I’ve written about before. VMware fanboys/girls tried to apologize for it, but fact is it was not a popular move, either in the VMware enthusiast community or the business community.

So if it’s really gone, good. Good riddance. The only thing now is, how much RAM do we get to use in the free version, which is critical to the study/home lab market.