In a way, it is RAID for CPU, memory and I/O. This certainly important feature is not a new revolutionary technology, though. Mainframe systems always had similar capabilities. Therefore, it will be one further step for Microsoft in pushing Windows into the datacenter. Unfortunately, this feature will only be supported by the Datacenter and the Itanium editions of Windows Server 2008. By the way, Windows Server 2003 already supports hot-add memory.

It is interesting to note, that the white paper about the new features of Windows Server 2008, I linked to earlier, doesn’t mention this new capability. If you want to know more technical details about Dynamic Partitioning, or about the “hot swap feature” as some call it, I recommend this PowerPoint presentation.

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So its purpose is not server consolidation but fault tolerance. This sounds like server clustering. However, there are some fundamental differences.

The biggest advantage of EverRun FT compared to clustering solutions is that the applications don’t have to be cluster-aware. Furthermore, there will be no failover if one of the servers breaks down, i.e. the virtual server will continue running without any downtime.

The disadvantage is that both physical servers have to be absolutely identical. You even have to patch them simultaneously. During the patching process you will have a short downtime.

This technology seems to be very promising to me. The price of $14,000 is not so promising though.

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