One of the main advantages of operating in a cluster environment is that you can minimize your downtime. If you have all of your information stored on one server and that server goes down then your entire operation could be halted. With a cluster server, however, you can often move your information to another computer on your network and continue operations while the down server is having its maintenance done.

Another benefit to using a cluster server environment is for easier maintenance overall. It’s a good idea every now and then to clean up your information systems. If you schedule your maintenance in a staggered fashion you can effectively perform maintenance on every box in your cluster with no downtime whatsoever. You just move your information from computer to computer until the entire cluster system has been cleaned, maintained, and made more efficient.

Cluster servers can exist as local clusters or remote. Either way, you have reduced downtime and reduced costs to running your operation.