Clusters in the Private Cloud

Private Versus Public Cloud Computing

A plethora of applications are being considered for the cloud, but it may take at least another year before cloud computing goes mainstream in the enterprise.

It seem like the more we talk about cloud computing, especially the private kind, the more the conversation turns to clustering. 

When you think about it, clusters are probably the most advanced form of shared infrastructure we have in the enterprise today. Right now, most of those clusters are in place because of the unique performance and availability attributes of a particular application. But as the march towards private cloud computing continues, it seems that a convergence between clustering technologies and cloud computing is almost inevitable.

Unfortunately, most clusters are difficult to manage. As time goes on, the management of clusters should become simpler. Case in point is a new Java Virtual Machine (JVM) cluster monitoring capability that Precise Software included in the latest version of its Precise 9.0 transaction performance management software.

The challenge with clusters, says Precise executive vice president Zohar Gilad, is that all it takes is for one system in the cluster to be out of balance to have an adverse effect on the application. That’s one of the reasons we don’t see many clusters that go beyond four nodes in distributed computing environments. But one day clustering technologies will become easier to manage and deploy. And when that happens there will be more applications running simultaneously on the same cluster.

In the meantime, there are more than a few folks who listen to everything that is being said about the future of private cloud computing. These folks can’t help but think that it sure sounds a whole lot like the clustering technologies typically associated with today’s high-performance computing (HPC) environments. So when all is said and done, a private cloud may just turn out to be an easier-to-manage cluster.