Has your growth ever been frustrated by downtime? Clustered Hosting is a form of web hosting that spreads the load of hosting across multiple physical machines. This boosts the availability of resources hosted and increases reliability.
We consulted with our team of experts in the hosting field and in this guide, you’ll learn how clustere setup may be the solution you’ve been searching for.
First, you’ll learn what clustered servers are, what clients this service is for, and some of the different types of clustered hosting solutions. Then, you’ll learn the essential pros and cons so you can make the best decision about your next web host or service.
Table Of Contents
What Is A Web Hosting Cluster?
A web hosting cluster is a group of web servers that have been set up to distribute work across many different servers (or other nodes) on the same network.
This configuration allows other nodes in the web hosting cluster to take over in the event of an outage—preventing the site from going down or one service (such as email) from affecting others with its problems.
A server designed to take over a failing server is called a cluster host. It’s ready to handle all the guest operating systems on another machine. There is typically more than one cluster host within an entire cluster.
A traditional hosting service, by contrast, maintains your site from a permanent location on a single server acting as the host machine.
Pros And Cons Of Clustered Hosting
Industry-Leading Uptime
Industry-Leading UptimeThis type of hosting allows high and increasing reliability, depending on how many servers you can afford to add to your cluster.
You have multiple servers hosting the same content. So, when one server fails, a clustered web hosting setup can simply move the load to a different cluster host and stay online.
The user doesn’t experience the failure, and never sees a “site/web page down” warning as long as another cluster host is available to compensate for the failure.
- Effective Scalability
Once a cluster has been configured, you can simply add a new host whenever needed. This will preserve the performance your visitors expect even if your traffic multiplies.
This is similar to how you might add new front end servers to a traditional setup. However, a front end server doesn’t offer the same capabilities.
- High Levels Of Complexity
High Levels Of ComplexitySophisticated algorithms are needed to ensure work is distributed well. All individual web servers in a cluster still need to be maintained, so clusters require more monitoring from techs.
- Costs Are High
Cluster server services can come at a high cost due to the multiple physical machines needed. Your hosting account may require you to bear some device costs for expansions.
Who Needs Clustered Web Hosting?
Clustered web hosting is for hosting clients who place the highest priority on uptime. While it’s out of the price range of hobby sites, small businesses and large enterprises often depend on this type of hosting.
What Are The Main Types Of Clustered Hosting With Multiple Servers?
The main types of clustered hosting with multiple servers are high availability (ha) server clusters, load balancing clusters, and high-performance clusters.
High Availability (HA) Server Clusters
High Availability clusters are optimized for continuous performance. An HA cluster is designed to be highly redundant so that a website can’t be brought down from a single point of failure.
Load Balancing Clusters
Load balancing clusters are designed to distribute load across all available nodes to speed up operations and prevent congestion. Most other types of clusters also rely on balancing software.
High Performance Clusters
High-performance clusters use computers (as in a physical machine) with powerful processing resources as nodes to work through data tasks.
More computers with better quality resources can be added to allow for even more processing power.
Most modern supercomputers can be more accurately described as performance clusters, as single machines cannot practically deliver the same processing power.
Is Clustered Hosting Right For You?
Clustered hosting can be very powerful. It is a great option for businesses and websites where having the highest amount of uptime is critically important.
However, if your just starting out it can be a very costly option and there are many more affordable options which may be better better for your needs.
If you are looking for the best hosting options for your businesses and want to know what the best options avaible to you are then check out our guide: 7 Best Web Hosting For Small Business: 2022’s Top Providers
