A computer-implemented method for managing application availability, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, wherein one instance of an application is running on a first cluster node and another instance of the application is running on a second cluster node, the method comprising: Identifying, by an identification module (104(a)) within the computing device, the instance of the application (203(a)) running on the first cluster node of a failover cluster by receiving a request to stop the instance of the application (203(a)) running on the first cluster node; identifying, by the identification module (104(a)), the application as a non-cluster-aware application that is therefore not configured to take advantage of failover capabilities in a cluster environment; after the identification module (104(a)) identifies the application as a non-cluster aware application, informing, by the identification module, a monitoring module that configuration data for the instance of the application (203(a)) running on the first cluster node should be copied to a storage location, wherein the configuration data comprises node-specific information; copying, in response to stopping of the instance of the application (203(a)) running on the first cluster node as a trigger, by the monitoring module (106(a)), the configuration data of the instance of the application (203(a)) that run on the first cluster node to a storage location accessible by the second cluster node of the failover cluster by taking a backup of the configuration data after the instance of the application (203(a)) that run on the first cluster node is stopped; detecting failure of the first cluster node; restoring the configuration data of the instance of the application that run on the first cluster node to the second cluster node, wherein restoring the configuration data to the second cluster node comprises translating the node-specific information; performing a differential merge of the restored configuration data with configuration data that is already existing on the second cluster node by keeping only a single copy of settings and/or options that are the same in the existing and restored configuration data and by keeping both copies of settings and/or options that are different in the existing and restored configuration data; executing a second instance of the application on the second cluster node in accordance with the restored configuration data. Identifying, by an identification module (104(a)) within the computing device, the instance of the application (203(a)) running on the first cluster node of a failover cluster by receiving a request to stop the instance of the application (203(a)) running on the first cluster node; identifying, by the identification module (104(a)), the application as a non-cluster-aware application that is therefore not configured to take advantage of failover capabilities in a cluster environment; after the identification module (104(a)) identifies the application as a non-cluster aware application, informing, by the identification module, a monitoring module that configuration data for the instance of the application (203(a)) running on the first cluster node should be copied to a storage location, wherein the configuration data comprises node-specific information; copying, in response to stopping of the instance of the application (203(a)) running on the first cluster node as a trigger, by the monitoring module (106(a)), the configuration data of the instance of the application (203(a)) that run on the first cluster node to a storage location accessible by the second cluster node of the failover cluster by taking a backup of the configuration data after the instance of the application (203(a)) that run on the first cluster node is stopped; detecting failure of the first cluster node; restoring the configuration data of the instance of the application that run on the first cluster node to the second cluster node, wherein restoring the configuration data to the second cluster node comprises translating the node-specific information; performing a differential merge of the restored configuration data with configuration data that is already existing on the second cluster node by keeping only a single copy of settings and/or options that are the same in the existing and restored configuration data and by keeping both copies of settings and/or options that are different in the existing and restored configuration data; executing a second instance of the application on the second cluster node in accordance with the restored configuration data.