Such is the case with most of the latest hype surrounding clustering. Vendors tout clustering as a way to boost scalability, performance and availability. For years, vendors such as Digital, IBM, and Sun have been tying CPUs together via software and hardware techniques to boost performance and provide failover functions. The efforts have met with varying degrees of success. The technology has thousands of connected nodes in its installed base.
Any component can fail and the system can keep running.
Everything is hot-swappable. While hardware vendors continue to expand their cluster offerings, few of them have generated the clamor Microsoft has with its Microsoft Cluster Server product, popularly known as Wolfpack. Wolfpack is the technology Microsoft says will provide server failover protection and multiple server clustering capabilities. But most of the promise of Wolfpack remains just that - a promise. According to Microsoft, most users are content with the simple failover and availability features the company already offers.