? Scalability: Computing power can be increased by adding more processors or computers.

? Manageability: Appears as a single-system image with a single point of control.

While clustering provides significant benefits, IT managers must also be cognizant of related challenges. Further, a clustered environment can be complicated to manage -- especially if your staff is new to this technology. If IT is unable to perform basic checks, such as confirming whether a patch has been applied correctly to all nodes in the cluster, it could cause serious outages. Finally, if the SMB is using Service-Oriented Architecture, where applications are working in tandem, it will require solutions that understand the dependencies.

The benefits of data mirroring:

? Protects against data loss: Added redundancy offers backup in case of hardware failure.