The hardware market is repricing all around you. RAM prices have doubled, vendors are voiding quotes inside 14 days, and lead times—once measured in weeks—are now stretching to months. Every organization still running on-premises infrastructure is absorbing that volatility directly—in budgets, in procurement cycles, and in projects that stall waiting on hardware that may or may not arrive at the price originally quoted.
The RAM shortage is expected to last at least two more years, and every quarter you stay on on-premises is another quarter of compounding CapEx exposure.
There’s a better option. ThinkOn VPC pricing has not changed.
What is the RAM shortage and why does it matter right now?
A global supply constraint driven by AI demand has doubled server memory prices and stretched hardware lead times to months.
The current RAM shortage is structural, not cyclical. Hyperscale AI infrastructure is consuming server memory at a rate that enterprise hardware has never even come close to. Tariff pressures are compressing margins across the supply chain. Enterprise workloads are increasingly competing for hardware allocation against higher-margin AI silicon that vendors would rather sell.
The result? Prices have doubled, quotes are being voided inside 14 days, and lead times that used to be weeks are now months—with no guarantee the price holds when hardware finally arrives. For any organization approaching a refresh cycle—for any partner with clients in that position—the timing of this conversation matters.
Why the RAM shortage is accelerating the shift from CapEx to OpEx
Organizations still running on-premises infrastructure are now absorbing hardware market volatility in renewal budgets, procurement cycles, and projects stalled waiting on RAM that may arrive months late at a price that no longer matches the original quote.
The RAM shortage has made the CapEx-to-OpEx shift unavoidable.
Shifting to a allocation-based model like ThinkOn VPC doesn’t just reduce costs, it removes the entire category of risk that on-premises CapEx creates—stranded inventory, speculative purchasing, and the compounding exposure of locking capital into depreciating hardware in an unstable market.
ThinkOn has not increased VPC pricing during the RAM shortage
ThinkOn VPC rates are locked at deployment. Your bill does not move for the life of that contract.
While other providers are repricing to absorb hardware cost increases and passing them downstream, ThinkOn’s consumption-based model works differently. We operate on existing capacity, which means we’re not exposed to the same procurement pressures others are navigating right now. That structural advantage gets passed directly to end users—no surprise invoices, no mid-contract renegotiations, and no budget conversations that start with a vendor coming back with new numbers. For partners, it means walking into a customer conversation with a genuinely differentiated value proposition at exactly the moment the market is making the case for you.
Scale cloud capacity on demand: No hardware procurement, no lead times
Scale cloud capacity on demand: No hardware procurement, no lead times
ThinkOn VPC provisions new capacity immediately. No supply chain exposure, no procurement cycles, no hardware to wait on.
Businesses buying physical RAM right now are waiting weeks or months for delivery. Projects stall. Expansions get pushed. And when hardware finally arrives, the price is often different from the one originally quoted. With ThinkOn VPC, expansion provisions immediately at current rates — no procurement delay, no supply chain gamble, no waiting to find out if the hardware shows up. For partners, that speed is a competitive differentiator you can put in front of prospects today.
No idle inventory: Pay for what you use, not what you’re hedging against
With ThinkOn VPC, you pay only for what you allocate. No speculative purchasing, no stranded capacity, no wasted spend.
One of the most expensive responses to a hardware shortage is speculative buying—purchasing more than you need today to hedge against price increases tomorrow. The result is capital tied up in idle inventory, ongoing costs for infrastructure that isn’t generating value, and a balance sheet carrying risk it never needed to take on. ThinkOn VPC eliminates that entirely. Your clients’ spend reflects their actual footprint—nothing more.
How long is the RAM shortage expected to last?
The RAM shortage is not a temporary cycle. It’s expected to last for at least two more years, driven by structural AI demand.
Enterprise IT has survived hardware price cycles before—prices spike, supply catches up, things normalize. That playbook does not apply here. What’s different this time is that hyperscale AI infrastructure is consuming memory supply at a rate that enterprise hardware has never competed with. Tariff pressures are compressing margins across the entire supply chain. And enterprise workloads are increasingly fighting for hardware allocation against higher-margin AI silicon that vendors would rather sell.
Waiting for normalization is not a strategy. For partners and their clients, the window to act is now—and it compounds every quarter you don’t.
How ThinkOn VPC compares to on-premises during the RAM shortage
ThinkOn VPC absorbs the hardware volatility so customers never have to track spot prices, renegotiate suppliers, or rush panic purchases.
Here’s what that looks like side by side:
| Challenge | On-Premises | ThinkOn VPC |
| Cost predictability | Volatile. Tied to market conditions. | Transparent. No surprises. |
| Pricing stability | Quotes voided in 14 days. Prices rising. | No price increases. Rates locked at deployment. |
| Capacity scaling | Hardware procurement. Weeks or months of lead time. | On demand. Immediate. No new contract needed. |
| Procurement risk | Full exposure to supply chain volatility. | Fully abstracted. We absorb it. |
| Idle inventory risk | Overpurchasing required to hedge against future spikes. | Pay only for what you allocate. |
See exactly what you’d pay with zero ingress and egress fees, no matter what the hardware market does.
Get the No Egress Fees data sheet.
Why now is the time to move from on-premises to cloud
Every quarter on an on-premises CapEx model compounds your exposure. The business case for cloud has never been stronger. The RAM shortage didn’t create the argument for cloud migration. It made it impossible to ignore.
Moving to ThinkOn VPC is the fastest path from CapEx to OpEx—immediate cost predictability, no procurement exposure, and infrastructure that scales the moment you need it, without absorbing market risk that was never yours to carry. The advantage of moving now compounds every quarter you act. ThinkOn VPC runs on existing capacity. It’s already here. No lead time. No hardware to wait on.
CTA: See how ThinkOn VPC delivers predictable billing and elastic scaling while the hardware market moves around you.
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FAQ
Has ThinkOn increased VPC pricing during the RAM shortage?
No. ThinkOn VPC pricing has not increased during the RAM shortage. Customers lock in rates at deployment and are protected from market price movements when expanding capacity.
How does ThinkOn VPC insulate customers from the RAM shortage?
ThinkOn VPC operates on existing capacity, abstracting customers from hardware procurement entirely. Capacity scales on demand with no supply chain exposure and no lead times. Existing contracted rates are locked for the term of the agreement and unaffected by market pricing.
What is the difference between on-premises and cloud infrastructure costs during a hardware shortage?
On-premises operators are directly exposed to spot price volatility, procurement delays, and the cost of speculative buying. Cloud customers on a consumption-based model like ThinkOn VPC pay only for what they allocate, with billing that does not move with the hardware market.
Is now a good time for partners to bring cloud migration conversations to their clients?
Yes. The RAM shortage has significantly strengthened the CapEx-to-OpEx business case. Partners who lead this conversation now are positioned to win recurring revenue at exactly the moment clients are most receptive to making the move.