Software Redundancy
Software redundancy is a fault tolerance technique in software engineering where multiple identical or functionally equivalent components (such as processes, modules, or systems) are deployed to ensure continued operation in case of failures. It involves creating backup instances that can take over if the primary component fails, often managed through mechanisms like replication, checkpoints, or failover protocols. This approach is critical for building highly available and reliable systems, particularly in mission-critical applications where downtime is unacceptable.
Developers should implement software redundancy when building systems that require high availability, fault tolerance, or disaster recovery, such as financial services, healthcare applications, or cloud infrastructure. It is essential in distributed systems, microservices architectures, and real-time processing where single points of failure must be eliminated to maintain service continuity. Learning this concept helps in designing resilient software that can handle hardware failures, software bugs, or network issues without disrupting user experience.