failover

English

Etymology

fail +‎ over

Pronunciation

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Noun

failover (countable and uncountable; plural failovers)

1. (computing, uncountable) A means for ensuring high availability of some critical resource (such as a computer system), involving a parallel backup system which is kept running at all times so that, upon detected failure of the primary system, processing can be automatically shifted over to the backup.
2. (computing, countable) An automatic switch to a secondary system on failure of the primary system.

   The system experienced numerous failovers during the hurricane.

See also

• fail over