Azul Systems says it has an answer for IT managers wrestling with how to cope with unpredictable spikes in demand that go hand-in-hand with Web-based applications.

Rather than deploying additional hardware, which much of the time sits idle, Azul envisions Java-based application servers tapping into a pool of compute power that is available on-demand. It's an idea that CEO Stephen DeWitt likens to the way servers tap into storage.

"Companies have been able to separate the function of storage from the server and allow existing servers to mount big buckets of storage," he says. "By doing so you eliminate capacity planning at the individual application, workgroup or user level."

Azul wants to give application servers access to all the compute power they need without having to plan for demand in advance.

Web applications such as those based on Java, Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition and .Net use a virtual machine architecture, meaning that the application is separated from the hardware and can run on any platform. As a result, processing workloads can be shuttled from traditional application servers that run BEA Systems' WebLogic or IBM's WebSphere, for example, across the network to Azul's compute appliance.

Azul proxy software is installed on traditional servers, directing them to send Java processing to Azul's compute appliances. A management tool lets users set business rules and priorities dictating how much processing power should be assigned to each application, ensuring that each gets what it needs.

Azul designed its appliance from the ground up to handle virtual machine-based workloads that run many application threads simultaneously. The system is based on a custom-designed microprocessor, which includes 24 cores on a chip.

The vendor plans to make its appliance generally available in the next few months in configurations of four to 16 processors, meaning that users could have access to as many as 384 processor cores in a standard 11U rack-mount chassis.

One user who has been beta-testing a four-processor system for the past few months says the appliance simplifies administrative overhead in the data center.

"In the past, our biggest challenge was bringing in hardware to serve increasing load," says an application architect at an IT business management and consulting firm who asked not to be named. "We were spending a lot of time playing musical chairs with our hardware and our applications trying to get things right for utilization levels. . . . [With the Azul box] there are a whole bunch of problems that we used to spend a lot of time on in an operations environment that are just going to go away."

Analysts are intrigued by Azul's focus, noting that users don't need to modify applications, a hurdle when it comes to other approaches to increasing hardware utilization such as grid computing. But they question whether IT managers are ready for this type of architectural change.

"How many data centers will have the workload to support Azul?" asks Vernon Turner, group vice president and general manager of enterprise computing at IDC. "How far down the IT pyramid [does Azul] want to go? They are segmenting their market specifically for [Java, which is fine], but to be fair, one has to ask: 'Is this going to be the only computing model of the future?'"