For applications that require the most processing power, Parallel processing is the key. It can be provided by one computer with many processors or many computers networked together. Beowulf Clustering allows for networked computers to work together on one or more processes. This allows for performance gains of 2 to 500 times that of a single computer. The advantage of many computers over one with many processors is cost. When you get into 8 or 16 processor systems, you are looking at purchasing a custom or expensive motherboard which can not be easily upgraded. A Cluster, on the other hand, is made up of "commodity-off-the-shelf" systems and can be upgraded or repaired easily and in some cases even without stopping the processes.

The Linux Virtual Server is a highly scalable and highly available server built on a cluster of systems (can be low-end PCs or high end servers), with the load balancer running on the Linux operating system. The architecture of the cluster is transparent to end users. End users only see a single virtual server.