Failover Clustering

Providing High Availability to mission-critical applications, services, and data is a primary objective of successful IT departments. When services are down or fail, business continuity is interrupted, which can result in significant losses. Failover clustering in Windows Server 2008 R2 helps ensure that your mission-critical applications and services, such as e-mail and line-of-business applications, are available when you need them.

The improvements to failover clusters in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are aimed at simplifying clusters, making them more secure, and enhancing cluster stability. And because they are included in the enhanced-capability editions of Windows Server 2008 R2, such as Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter, Windows Server 2008 R2 failover clusters are much less expensive than comparable systems, which can cost thousands of dollars. Ease of deployment and affordability make Windows Server 2008 R2 an ideal High-Availability solution for organizations of all sizes.

Product Overview
Whether you’re new to Windows Server clustering, or have deployed this in previous versions, you will be able to find out the information you need here. Learn about new, improved, and updated features.

Multisite Clustering
Want to provide High Availability for multiple sites? The new support for geographically dispersed clusters builds upon the strengths of Windows Server 2008 R2 failover clustering. This High-Availability solution allows for the connection of cluster nodes through a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), spanning many miles, for a solution that not only achieves High Availability, but also provides automatic disaster recovery.

Summary of Windows Server 2008 R2 Enhancements
Learn what's new with failover clustering in Windows Server 2008 R2.