What is RAM? · Ultra Transcenders glossary

Memory, whether that of a physical host or of a virtual machine.

Also called random access memory.

In the Ultra Transcenders books

Each book explains RAM in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.

Physical
Describes the concrete, real-world parts that put a logical architecture into effect.
VM
A computer implemented entirely in software, having virtual hardware and its own guest OS; ESX hosts run it and vCenter manages it.

Memory-optimized table
An In-Memory OLTP table held entirely in RAM, giving very fast access with no latching. SCHEMA_AND_DATA makes it durable and SCHEMA_ONLY doesn't. Azure SQL Database offers it on Business Critical and Premium only.
NUMA spanning
A Hyper-V host option allowing a single guest to draw on processors and RAM belonging to more than one NUMA node, which costs some performance. On Windows Server 2025, any guest whose virtual core count exceeds what one node offers requires it.
Performance-based assessment
Rather than copying on-premises allocations, this Azure Migrate assessment uses recorded CPU, RAM, IOPS and throughput data to recommend disk types and Azure VM sizes.
Requirement rules
Checks a device has to pass before Intune installs a Win32 app, for example on architecture, minimum OS, free disk, RAM, CPU, or a file, registry or script test.
Resize
Gives a Cloud PC more or less CPU and RAM, or more storage, with user data kept intact; Windows 365 cannot shrink the disk.
Scaling up
Growing capacity by making one server bigger, say switching a VM to a larger size that brings extra processors and RAM. The alternative, scaling out, adds more machines or partitions instead.