Is Windows Right for High-Availability Enterprise Applications?Dan Kusnetzky, Vice PresidentSystem Software ResearchIDC

IDC © 2002

Agenda

What are “Enterprise Applications?”

IDC’s Spectrum of Scalability?

What is “High-Availability?”

What are the 7 meanings of the term “cluster?”

IDC’s spectrum of availability software

How the vendors stack up

Questions?

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What are “Enterprise Applications?”

All organizations are “enterprises”

• Regardless of revenues or the number of

employees

• Vendors use the term “enterprise” to imply

things which may or many not be true

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What are “Enterprise Applications?”

Questions to ask your suppliers

• Does this application or tool have a direct impact on:• Each customer?• Each employee?• Each partner or supplier?• If the answers are “no” then it’s not an

enterprise application

• Will the organization go out of business without this application?

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IDC’s Model of Scalability

Complex/Small

Simple/Small

Complex/Large

Simple/Large

Complexity

Transactions/Day

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VS.

Various Ways to ScaleMultifunction vs. Functional

Servers

Systems have defined functions

Database

Applications orapplication

components

Load-balancedWeb servers

Storage

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What is “High Availability”?

Applications and Data remain available beyond

the life of its host

There are many ways to achieve this

High Availability solutions could include

• Application fail over

• Middleware

• Serverware

• Storage software

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What’s a Cluster Among Friends?

The Goal: harnessing

the power of many

machines to create a

single virtual

environment

Each approach is

selected by different

people for different

needs

Parallel processing

Load balancing

High availability/fail

over

Single system image

Application fail over

Storage availability

and performance

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Some “Clustering” History

VAXcluster and IBM’s Parallel Sysplex: high

water marks

Unix Clustering: Behind but catching up

Linux: evolving from Web load balancing and

HPTC to more commercial approaches

Storage Software Suppliers: Data availability and

application fail over

Microsoft – Taking a Different Approach

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Load Balancing or Parallel Processing Monitor

Two to thousands of independent loosely-linked

systems Multiple systems have copies of applications

and data

Applications run on all systems

Monitor distributes workload among the available

systems

• Distribute loads using round-robin, request or capacity model

Data synchronization and administration can be

challenges

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High Availability Monitor Two to 32 systems

cooperating to create a single environment.

Multiple systems have copies of applications and data.

Applications run on all systems.

• Communicate with a high availability monitor through special APIs.

• Data accessed through a parallel database or special APIs.

Monitor notifies systems

of an outage so

applications can respond.

Load balancing may not

be available.

Run applications in

parallel for improved

performance. Run multiple

copies of applications to

improve scalability,

Administration can be

challenge.

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Clustering Monitor

Two to 32 systems tied tightly together.

Multiple systems have copies of applications and data.

Applications are run on all systems.

• Data can be accessed through a parallel database or directly as if on a single system.

• It may not be necessary to use special APIs.

Monitor notifies systems of an outage so the operating environment can respond.

Applications can be run in parallel for improved performance. Multiple copies of applications can be run to improve scalability.

Everyone sees a single virtual environment.

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High Availability Applications

Two to thousands of systems cooperating to create a single environment at the application level

Multiple systems have copies of applications and data

Applications are run on all systems

Application contains

logic to handle failure

scenarios

Other applications

may not benefit

Administration can be

challenge

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High Availability for Storage

Storage servers via NAS or SAN

Storage replication

Fail-over manager virtualizes storage

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Microsoft’s Traditional Strategy

Own the the following, and you own the customer’s systems

• APIs

• Development tools

• File formats

• Communications architectures

Create incompatibilities drive customers to use only Microsoft products

Only Microsoft created “standards” are fully supported; others are not

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Microsoft’s Approach to Clustering and High Availability Solutions

Philosophy

• Let our software do it – we know more about

your needs than you do

• Microsoft software everywhere, doing

everything

• Everything is legacy: should be encapsulated

and eventually replaced with a Windows

solution even if it working productively

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Microsoft’s Approach to Clustering and High Availability Solutions

Layers

• Presentation (IIS, Site Server, SNA Server)

• Business logic (Application Center 2000,

COM+)

• Data access and storage (SQL Server 2000,

Windows 2000 now, Windows .NET Server in

the future, Microsoft cluster services)

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How the Vendors Stack Up

• Microsoft Application Center 2000

• Red Hat High Availability Server

• TurboLinux Cluster Server

• Legato Cluster Server

• IBM HACMP

• Microsoft MSCS

• Mission Critical Linux Convolo

• Veritas Cluster Server

• Compaq TruCluster for VMS or TruCluster for Tru64 UNIX

• HP MC/Service Guard

• Sun Cluster 3.0

• Caldera/SCO Non-stop Cluster for UnixWare

• Open Source Beowulf, LVS and others

• TurboLinux EnFuzion

• Platform Computing LSF

• Sun Gridware

Parallel Processing Load Balancing High Availability Clustering Manager

Monitor Monitor

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Clustering and High Availability Software Market Drivers

B2B, B2C and in-house applications can not appear to slow down or to fail

Staff with necessary skills are difficult to find and costly

Clustering and high availability software is:

• Difficult to install, configure and use today

• Will be much easier over time

Directed by operating environment adoption

Open Source alternatives limit potential for revenue growth

IDC © 2002

Is Windows Right for High-Availability Enterprise Applications?

Today’s Answer: A definite maybe.

Some applications are served well by highly distributed architectures

• Low intensity of interdependent data

• Algorithm allowing decomposition

Some applications are better when hosted on a single, medium or large scale system

• High intensity of interdependent data

• Monolithic application architecture

Tomorrow’s Answer: As the Eight Ball says “signs point to yes”

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Questions

dkusnetzky@idc.com

IDC © 2002

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