I believe kdipaolo is not asking how to spread resources amongst several different servers in a cloud, but rather if they can re-install & test their site on a new server, without disturbing/affecting the original website. The answer is yes, you can, but update configure.php so your "new" site is using the correct URL. The best way to do that is to simply use the new server's IP address. DNS should NOT be changed until they are ready to launch the new website.