WAN clustering (geoclustering, high-availability clustering or remote clustering)
WAN clustering, also called geoclustering, high-availability clustering or remote clustering, is
the use of multiple redundant computing resources located in different geographical locations to
form what appears to be a single highly-available system.
The goal of WAN clustering is to support enterprise business continuity by providing
location-independent load
balancing and failover. WAN
clustering can be used for just about any computing resource, including mainframes, file servers and software
application stacks.
The biggest challenge in WAN clustering is to make sure that system states and their associated
data are concurrent at multiple locations. Two advancements have helped administrators meet this
challenge -- faster wide area network (WAN connection speeds and the
ability to create and manage a clustered resource through a single virtualized master identity.
See also: cluster computing,
high
availability, five 9s
This was last updated in October 2009
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