Even if one of their servers goes down, access to your data and Web site will remain uninterrupted. Constant monitoring ensures that any serious problem receives immediate attention. They estimate a network uptime of at least 99.999 percent. The Structure Traffic coming in and out of their network flows through fiber-optic cables into their two Foundry Networks BigIron 8000 switches. The BigIron switches are clustered together so that one can take over the functions of the other in case of a hardware failure.
Load balancers prevent either switch from taking on more traffic than it needs to.
The BigIron switches in turn connect to their high-end UNIX servers, which handle access to your data and Web site. Those servers are backed up by several failover servers. These servers are all interchangeable, and the load balancers prevent any given server from becoming overworked. The UNIX servers also connect via the BigIron switches to two NetApp F760 File Servers, where your data is stored. As with all such systems in their network, the two F760s are clustered together.