Okuzeka
Cloud Computing & DevOps vocabulary · Reliability and Incidents

Failover

Meaning in cloud computing & devops, with examples

/ˈfeɪlˌoʊvər/nounCommon term

In cloud computing & devops, failover means: Switching automatically or manually to a standby system, such as a database replica or a second region, when the main one fails.

In Turkish: yük devretme, yedeğe geçiş, otomatik geçiş

How it is used

The noun is one word ('failover'); the verb is two ('fail over'). Teams test failover regularly, because an untested one often fails when needed. Returning to the original system afterwards is called failback.

Example sentences

  1. The database failover took 40 seconds, and most users saw only one error.

  2. We run a failover test every quarter to make sure the second region really works.

Common collocations

  • automatic failover
  • failover test
  • trigger a failover
  • failover region
  • high availabilityDesigning a system so that it stays up almost all the time, with no single part whose failure can stop the whole service.
  • redundancyHaving extra copies of servers, network links, disks or data, so that the system keeps working if one of them fails.
  • disaster recoveryThe plans, tools and processes for bringing systems and data back after a major event, such as losing a whole data center or region.
  • availability zoneOne of several separate data center locations inside a cloud region, each with its own power and network, so a failure in one should not affect the others.
  • health checkA regular automatic test, often a request to a special URL such as /health, that checks whether a server or service is working and able to take traffic.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Reliability and Incidents

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: