I have a Java application where scalability is primarily limited by RAM, that I would like to run on one or more servers in a datacenter. Where should I be looking for server hardware that can accommodate 100GB - 512GB or more of RAM? I'm not an expert in such matters so I really don't know where to start.
Is this getting into supercomputer territory (6 figures or more), or could I obtain such a server for low 5-digit dollars?
A few notes based on some questions below:
- Yes I have tried hard to think of ways to remove this scalability requirement, and no its not really an option. The application fundamentally requires very fast random access to very large amounts of data, storing in a hard disk (via a database perhaps) won't cut it.
- I'm pretty sure the JVM can, at least in theory, scale up that far. I regularly run my code with 10GB allocated to the Sun 1.6 JVM without noticeable problems.