1. Proposed title of this feature request

Virtual Machine Memory Tiering

2. What is the nature and description of the request?

Customers are growing their virtual machine count quarter over quarter. More often than now, DRAM is a limiting factor when it comes to adding more hardware. It also limits their ability to maximize the CPUs in their existing server. Today, DRAM can represent 50-70% of a servers cost when needing to use the highest density DIMMs.

Even with guard rails in place, VM creators tend to oversubscribe memory. When modeling workloads, we found that between over subscription and infrequently accessed data the cold versus warm pages we around a 4 to 1 ratio.

With previous technologies like Intel Optane, a 4 to 1 ratio of 512GB DRAM and 1.5TB PMEM provided a 2TB memory footprint with no impact to workloads and a 30% reduction in server cost.

Moving forward, a NVME or CXL backed memory tiering solution allows for broader hardware comparability. Being able to take advantage of larger 192+ core servers you also maximize rackspace, power and cooling in the data center with fewer machines.

In addition, NVMEs no longer require DIMM slots. This allows for further optimization through the usage of cheaper lower density DIMMs. Finally, NVMEs are much easier to replace or upgrade versus DRAM and provide some longer term flexibility.

3. Why does the customer need this? (List the business requirements here)
Workload density
TCO reduction for hardware
Datacenter space

4. List any affected packages or components.