What options are there to combine mining over multiple computers? Assuming you have multiple (30+) computers, what options are there available to do a distributed solo-mine?  Can I have them all checking into one bitcoin application over the network, or do I need to create/join a pool?
You can run as few or as many Bitcoin clients as you want. You can have them all pull from the same client, or you can have each miner pull from its own client. Just remember, the mined coins will go to the wallet of the client the miner pulled the work unit from.