fault tolerance
Microsoft Computer Dictionary
n. The ability of a computer or an operating system to respond to a catastrophic event or fault, such as a power outage or a hardware failure, in a way that ensures that no data is lost and any work in progress is not corrupted. This can be accomplished with a battery-backed power supply, backup hardware, provisions in the operating system, or any combination of these. In a fault-tolerant network, the system has the ability either to continue the system’s operation without loss of data or to shut the system down and restart it, recovering all processing that was in progress when the fault occurred.
