Clustering firm to knock on data center doors

Meiosys, a start-up that specializes in moving applications among physical servers to maximize performance and availability, is working with systems vendors to bring its technology to enterprise data centers.

The company has focused on the high-performance technical computing market since it was founded in 2000, but the latest release of its MetaCluster software is designed specifically for corporate customers. Its technology virtualizes systems at the application level, meaning that applications, their connections and processes are separated from the physical hardware on which they run.

As a result, stateful applications can be moved without disruption to end users or processes, says Jason Donahue, Meiosys CEO. Using Meiosys' technology, enterprise users do not have to provision excess hardware in case of spikes in demand because the application can be spread out on more servers if needed and then scaled back automatically.

Other firms such as Ejasent - where Donahue was formerly CEO and which Veritas Software acquired last year - offer similar application virtualization capabilities.

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Meiosys last week introduced MetaCluster 3.0, which includes a new management layer that lets corporate customers set policies for application relocation based on business rules.

In addition, Version 3.0 features XML-based application hooks so that its management tools can be integrated into enterprise management suites such as IBM Tivoli and Computer Associates Unicenter.

It can run on Intel and Advanced Micro Devices chips. The product will be available on Solaris 8 on Sparc in the first quarter and will be ported to Solaris 10 soon after, Meiosys says. Applications do not have to be modified to be virtualized with MetaCluster.

Meiosys officials say they are working with systems vendors, including Sun and HP, which use MetaCluster as part of their on-demand computing products.