VMware to kill vRAM license charges: report

VMware is set to ditch the controversial vRAM charges it introduced to vSphere licensing a year ago, according to a news report.

Channel publication CRN reported that the virtualisation giant would revert to a CPU-based licensing model when it launched vSphere 5.1, which is expected to occur at VMworld in San Francisco next week.

VMware caused outrage among customers when it revised server virtualisation licensing arrangements in July last year.

Though the change culled some limitations — such as the amount of physical memory included within a given license — it was also seen to punish customers that had deployed high memory, high density hardware to run their VMware environments.

Customers dubbed vRAM licensing as a "tax" on high-density environments, and some threatened to jump ship to Microsoft to protest the change.

A month after launching vRAM licensing, VMware slightly softened the impact, taking the backlash into account.

A year later, according to the CRN report, the vRAM charge is now back off the table.

Rollback of the vRAM charge is not the only hotly anticipated news expected out of VMworld.

The vendor is also expected to unveil a public infrastructure-as-a-service product that has been under development for months, under the codename Project Zephyr.