Software clustering vs hardware clustering

Difference between software clustering and hardware clustering?

Overview

This article explores the pros and cons of software clustering vs hardware clustering by looking at features like data replication, shared disks, load balancing, hardware and software prerequisites, skills to configure the cluster...

The following comparative tables explain in detail the difference between hardware clustering and SafeKit, a software clustering product.

What is hardware clustering?

There are two types of hardware clustering solutions: hardware clustering for backend applications like databases and hardware clustering for frontend applications like web services.

Hardware clustering for backend (like with Microsoft failover cluster) is based on 2 servers sharing a disk with an automatic application failover in case of failure.

Hardware clustering for frontend is based on load balancers (like with F5 BIG-IP) in front of a farm of servers (2 servers or more). The load balancers distributes the TCP sessions to the available servers in the farm.

What is software clustering?

As with hardware clustering, there are two types of software clustering solutions: software clustering for backend applications like databases and software clustering for frontend applications like web services.

Software clustering for backend (like with SafeKit) is based on 2 servers replicating in real-time data with an automatic application failover in case of failures.

Software clustering for frontend (like with SafeKit) is based on load balancing in a farm of servers (2 servers or more). The load balancing is made by software and distributes the TCP sessions to the available servers in the farm.

Pros and cons of software clustering vs hardware clustering