I have an interesting project I’m working on and was wondering what options are available to me.
I have multiple servers. For some of them, their resources are very underutilized. Some of my other servers are pushed to their limits with only a single application. I know the term “cloud computing” is all the buzz these days but it can mean so many different things. Here’s what I want to do:
Install a couple different operating systems.
I want to consolidate applications to as few operating systems as possible rather than currently having multiple OS’ as to spread the workload over multiple servers.
I want to virtualize applications if possible. Something along the lines of XenApp where the client/server app becomes more of a web application in a virtualized environment.
I want to have the operating systems and applications to automatically receive resources as they need them from across my servers rather than rely on resources from a single server. So I want 3 Operating Systems getting resources from 10 servers.
I want to have the VM’s automatically switch across servers in case of hardware failure.
Lastly I want it scalable. If we grow quickly and add applications, I want to be able to just quickly add in some cheap servers to pick up the slack. Almost a Google-esque idea.
What is out there that can help me accomplish this? I’ve checked out Citrix and VMWare but neither give me clear answers on whether I can accomplish exactly what I want to accomplish. VMWare totes the word “cloud” but seems (from what I understand) more that it will just move VM’s to less utilized servers to load balance but I have applications that are outgrowing any single server and would rather utilize a grid of servers than pay for the capital costs of new servers plus any costs associated with maintaining additional servers. And if we grow quickly, I need quick and easy scalability.
