Why Server Appliances Are Valid

I would like to argue a valid option (NOT the only option) to build appliances based upon their intended functionalities. All the key software will be installed into the appliance.

We can build an Operational/Transitional Appliance, which can contain application server (such as WebSphere Application Server, JBoss, IIS/.NET Framework), database (such as Oracle, SQLServer) and BPM server (such as WebSphere Process Server, jBPM, BizTalk Server), Business Rule Management server (IBM ILog JRules, JBoss Rule, BizTalk BRE), Data Service server (PowerCenter, SQL Server Integration Services, Talend) and others in one physical box.

We can build BI/Analytical Appliance, which can contain BI server (BusinessObjects, Jasper), database (such as Oracle, SQLServer), Business Rule Management server (IBM ILog JRules, JBoss Rule, BizTalk BRE), Data Service server (PowerCenter, SQL Server Integration Services, Talend) and others in one physical box.

This appliance can also be used to run big batch job with the following added into the mix: Job/Workload Management server (CA Autosys, Quartz Job Scheduler) and large volume data facilitator (PowerCenter Partitioning Option. SSIS Pipeline, Talend MPx).

Yes, there a lot of things going on within this one box. But there are definitely several advantages: a). it is much easier to manage; b). due the eliminated network latency, in some cases, it might perform better than putting each software server category into their own boxes – a popular topology during last decade; c) we can still have load-balancing and failover for the appliance; d) we can isolate the software servers using virtualization, which will increase fault tolerance and capacity allocations; e). if something goes wrong beyond repairing, simply throw the appliance away and put another one in; f) last but not least, it helps break the barriers among operational/transactional, BI/analytical and batch by sharing the metadata and business rules.