NewsFactor: Who Needs Clusters?

“The basic strategy for HA clusters is to take existing hardware
and raise it to the service level of a mainframe, with availability
assurances. And while a number of companies offer proprietary HA
technology, it has become a commodity drawing interest from the
open-source community.

“Such IT giants as HP, IBM and Oracle offer their own HA
products, along with several software providers, notably SteelEye,
Veritas and PolyServe. Open-source providers include Red Hat and
FailSafe, with IBM funding research into a heartbeat model for
Linux.

“HA cluster customers generally are those with enterprise-grade
system experience who are familiar with commodity hardware and want
scalability, as well as some who are new to the concept but have a
specific operational need–such as e-commerce vendors focused on
customer service or ISPs boosting their Web-services
offerings…”

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