You have been selected to recommend a solution to increase response time and add fault tolerance to a bank of servers. Your budget is limited and the client needs a solution as soon as possible…

Link aggregation increases network throughput between switches and servers but does not provide server-level fault tolerance or reduce application response time caused by server-side bottlenecks.

Server clustering directly addresses both stated requirements: load balancing across cluster nodes reduces response time, and automatic failover to a surviving node provides fault tolerance. Clustering can often be implemented on existing hardware using software solutions, minimizing cost and deployment time compared to purchasing new infrastructure. No other listed option simultaneously satisfies both the performance and high-availability requirements.

Backup network switching devices add network path redundancy but do not improve server response time or protect against server failures.

Off-site mass storage addresses data backup and disaster recovery for storage, not the response time or fault tolerance of active servers.

RAID devices improve disk I/O performance and protect against drive failure within a single server, but do not provide fault tolerance at the server level or address compute-bound response time issues.