SQL Server High Availability
SQL Server High Availability (HA) refers to a set of technologies and strategies in Microsoft SQL Server designed to minimize downtime and ensure continuous database availability for critical applications. It includes features like Always On Availability Groups, Failover Cluster Instances, and database mirroring to provide redundancy and automatic failover capabilities. The goal is to maintain service continuity during planned maintenance, hardware failures, or other disruptions.
Developers and database administrators should implement SQL Server High Availability for mission-critical systems where downtime is unacceptable, such as financial services, e-commerce platforms, or healthcare applications. It ensures business continuity by automatically switching to a standby server during failures, reducing data loss and maintaining user access. This is essential for meeting service-level agreements (SLAs) and compliance requirements in enterprise environments.