What describes using multiple pieces of physical hardware?

• A. Redundancy
• B. Redundant Hardware
• C. Fault Tolerance
• D. Clustering

Answer: (B)

Redundancy is about duplicating critical components so that if one fails, another can take over. Describing the setup as using multiple pieces of physical hardware points to redundant hardware—the hardware that exists in duplicate or as a spare to maintain availability. This idea helps explain how systems stay up by provisioning extra hardware like duplicate power supplies, mirrored disks, or extra network interfaces. Fault tolerance is the broader capability of the system to continue operating despite failures, which is achieved in part through redundancy, but the phrase here specifically identifies the physical duplicates themselves. Clustering involves multiple machines working together to provide service, which is a different approach to availability that goes beyond simply having duplicate hardware.