Overview

Broadcast facilities, cable head ends and satellite delivery services as well as many corporate and industrial communications entities are continuing to put more dependence on video/media servers for a widening variety of services. Around mid-1997, as the then infant half-decade long transition to video servers continued, the physical systems, software applications and operating systems began to mature. At approximately the same time, computer technology was already changing emerging into the client-server technology, and branching out into server clustering.

At that time, clustering, among other properties, was seen as a method to support higher data throughput, while offering protection and distribution of resources for multiple simultaneous users. It was long believed that by adding multiple processors and larger arrays that the server or workstation would indeed perform faster and more efficiently. Whether or not that concept is a qualified justification, similar claims have been made about the cluster concept.

For broadcast and content delivery operations, clustering is promoted as an alternative to mirroring and replication of server chassis and/or drive arrays. Clustering is said to improve in performance as more nodes and in turn more clusters are added. For the distributed or centralized distribution model (i.e., "central casting") the clustering of servers concept may indeed be the answer to system-wide protection, redundancy and reliability.