Abstract: Application instances can be virtualized and operate in a fault tolerant and load-balanced means across a cluster of servers while still maintaining access to a common pool of data. Each application instance is instantiated so to operate on top on top of a virtual host that possesses a distinct virtual Internet protocol address. Each node within a server cluster environment can possess one or more virtual hosts wherein upon server failover the virtual host and its associated virtual Internet protocol address can be relocated to another server without disturbing the instantiation of the application on the virtual host.