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Load Balancing

Clustering is the integration of software and hardware that enables a set of loosely coupled servers to operate as a single system, presenting a single entity to clients.

Load balancing works by distributing client requests to a cluster across different nodes in the cluster or single machines. In network load balancing, each incoming IP packet is received by each host, but is only accepted by its intended recipient.

4D Hosting Server Load Balancing addresses several requirements that are becoming increasingly important in networks:

  • Increased scalability
  • High performance
  • High availability and disaster recovery

The largest benefit of server load balancing is its ability to improve application availability. If an application or server fails, load balancing can automatically redistribute end-user service requests to other servers within a server farm or to servers in another location. Server load balancing also prevents planned outages for software or hardware maintenance from disrupting service to end-users.

The IT infrastructure is playing an increasingly important role in the success of a business. Market share, customer satisfaction and company image are all intertwined with the consistent availability of a company’s web site. Network servers are now frequently used to host ERP, e-commerce and a myriad of other applications. The foundation of these sites – the e-business infrastructure – is expected to provide high performance, high availability, and secure and scalable solutions to support all applications at all times.

Many content-intensive applications have scaled beyond the point where a single server can provide adequate processing power. Enterprises need the flexibility to deploy additional servers quickly and transparently to end-users. Server load balancing makes multiple servers appear as a single server - a single virtual service - by transparently distributing user requests among the servers.

The highest performance is achieved when the processing power of servers is used intelligently. 4D Hosting server load-balancing products can direct end-user service requests to the servers that are least busy and therefore capable of providing the fastest response times.

4D Hosting server load-balancing products can also provide disaster recovery services by redirecting service requests to a backup location when a catastrophic failure disables the primary site.

If you are interested in server clustering or would like more information please call our sales team on 0845 166 8386.