High availability solutions for an app on Windows Server 2008

Exactly what kind of application you have which is installed on Windows Server 2008?

Do you want the application to keep continuously running on the server? Normally to provide high availability to the application/server you need more than one Server. There are various options then you get.

From Microsoft - Fail over cluster management is the one, but here arranging shared store at home would be much costlier.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831579.aspx

From VMWare - You need to install two ESX Host and later then install one Windows Based Virtual Server on it which will be put in cluster on the two ESX Host which you have. This one is also tricky to configure at home.

http://www.vmware.com/in/products/vsphere/features/high-availability.html

Thanks for answering!

Yeah i've been looking into those solutions, and even if it is more expensive I think the VMWare fault tolerance is what I need.

But I got a question:

From what i've read I need to install the ESXi into two servers, and then install the vCenter app in another server to create a HA cluster and a shared storage.

What would be the cheapest alternative to this shared storage? Can I use the same vCenter server for this?

http://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-free