How Google Improved Application Scalability and Agility with a Virtualized Grid Environment

White Paper
Application Fabrics:
How Google Overcame Application
Scalability and Agility Limits with a
Virtualized, Real-Time Grid Environment
The Fabric of Business www.appistry.comApplication Fabrics: How Google Overcame Application Scalability and Agility Limits with a Virtualized, Real-Time Grid Environment
Contents
Executive Summary 3Competitive Advantage Built On "Real-Time" Insights 4Requirements of Time-Critical Applications 4Limits of Traditional Approaches 6- Traditional Grid Computing 6- Fault-tolerant Servers & Other Redundant Hardware 7- Clustered Application Servers 7Application Fabrics: An Overview 8- Application-Level Fault Tolerance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10- Automated Management 11- Additional Features 11Putting Application Fabrics to Use 12Google Puts Its Application Fabric To Highly Productive Use 13Benefits of Application Fabric Software to Key Stakeholders 13Conclusion 15About Appistry 16About Appistry Enterprise Application Fabric 16
Case Study: Meeting the Challenges of Large-Scale Supply Chain Optimization for a Global Retailer- Part I: The Challenges 5- Part II: The Alternatives 10- Part III: The Solution 12
 AppistryApplication Fabrics: How Google Overcame Application Scalability and Agility Limits with a Virtualized, Real-Time Grid Environment
Executive Summary
Enterprises today look to software applications not just to make existing processes more efficient, but also to power new insights and capabilities for driving business agility and competitive advantage. These strategic applications are frequently CPU- and/or data-intensive, and are also time-critical in nature.
The combination of CPU/data-intensive and time-critical requires that the applications exhibit both scalability and dependability, a tall order that many traditional approaches fail to successfully or cost-effectively meet. In addition, agile enterprises also require that their strategic applications keep pace with the change of business.
A new type of software-based application environment - the application fabric - is successfully and cost-effectively meeting the requirements of today's most demanding applications. By delivering high-levels of scalability and reliability across a virtualized "fabric" of commodity-class computers, application fabrics are eliminating the once-accepted trade-offs among application scalability, dependability, manageability and affordability.
This fabric-based approach to application deployment and management represents the next-generation of grid computing, enabling applications that allow companies to accelerate and improve decision-making, provide better value and service to consumers, and operate more efficiently, with the overall result of getting ahead - and staying ahead - of the competition.
Application fabrics are in use today by some of the savviest enterprises in the world, who understand that ... [download for more]