Not either/or (Score 1)

"Nobody in their right mind is wondering if they should get a cluster OR FT hardware. They get a cluster of FT servers." This model defeats the whole cost savings in a cluster solution. One of the main advantages of clustering is the ability to leverage low cost hardware, and create a highly fault tolerant infrastructure. You do need to pick one or the other. If you don't your paying on both ends. The clustering software provides the HA, not the hardware. If you don't use clustering software, then by all means rely on hardware HA, but both is just wrong. Why would you invest in the headache of scaling horizontally, only to spend the money on hardware HA as well?