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Clusters are primarily designed with performance in mind, but installations are based on many other factors. Fault tolerance (''the ability forof a system to continue workingoperating withdespite a malfunctioning node'') allows forenables [[horizontal scaling|scalability]], and in high-performance situations, allows for a low frequency of maintenance routines, resource consolidation (e.g., [[RAID]]), and centralized management. Advantages include enabling data recovery in the event of a disaster and providing parallel data processing and high processing capacity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/clusters/benefits.html|title=IBM Cluster System : Benefits|publisher=[[IBM]]|access-date=8 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429022854/http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/clusters/benefits.html|archive-date=29 April 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc778629(v=ws.10).aspx|title=Evaluating the Benefits of Clustering|date=28 March 2003|publisher=[[Microsoft]]|access-date=8 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422092651/https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc778629%28v%3Dws.10%29.aspx|archive-date=22 April 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In terms of scalability, clusters provide this in their ability to add nodes horizontally. This means that more computers may be added to the cluster, to improve its performance, redundancy and fault tolerance. This can be an inexpensive solution for a higher performing cluster compared to scaling up a single node in the cluster. This property of computer clusters can allow for larger computational loads to be executed by a larger number of lower performing computers.
