Small enterprises, like their larger brethren, have applications that require high availability. Unlike the larger enterprises, small companies may not have the financial or staff resources to implement third-party failover solutions. The solution may be to use clustering technology provided with Microsoft Windows Server.
Clustering capabilities have been part of Windows Server since NT. With the release of Windows Server 2008, the clustering functionality has been improved making it possible for even IT constrained enterprises to create a high-availability cluster.
Some of the enhancements include:
- Improvements in cluster setup and configuration verification.
- Simplification of cluster management.
- Increased stability and performance.
- Remote site failover capability.
Failover clustering, as Microsoft now dubs this functionality, is available with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and Data Center editions. Small enterprises using Windows Server should use the built-in clustering to make mission-critical applications highly available.