[CSING]

It doesn't. 7.0 is embedded DB only. This means clustering is out but HA (cold failover) is IN. 7.0 will use Location Awareness which allows clients in the LAN to retain the "connected" mode policy even if the server and the backup server go down or are inaccessible for other reasons, provided the client has access to pre-defined customizable network resources or to a "Beacon" server that lets the client know it is in the LAN.

6.6 has embedded only without HA. 7.0 rectifies the HA vulnerability. 6.0 to 6.5 versions have clustering (weak HA) with external DBs only.

Finally 7.5 will have Federation (with HA) allowing more than 20k seat installations.

Originally 7.0 was to have full Federation. This was a design that split the server into a Policy Manager (PM) and several Connection Managers (CM). The PMs only serve CMs and have HA between them so CMs always have something to connect to. Clients directly connect to CMs which can each handle 15-20k clients. Clients would intelligently load balance between CMs as needed. The PM-CM combination can fit on a single server so one server can handle 15-20k clients (with an extra server for HA) or the customer can choose to scale to multiple CMs and many thousands of seats. CMs send log data to Log Servers.

Scheduling prevented federation in 7.0. The PM/CM split will come with 7.5 along with some UI for HA. This will limit 7.0 to server to 15-20k seat installations. 7.0 will have fully functional HA and client side load balancing. 7.5 will see the completion of the PM/CM split and it will see the completion of the HA UI.

Some are attached to having an external DB. Federation design is greatly complicated if you have external DBs. Also, external DBs present a single point of failure unless you take on the task of clustering the DB. Most do not have the capability to do this. External DBs are limited in logging capacity just as the embedded DB is (the limit is just much higher). The federation design eliminates a single points of failure (all of them) and provides a simple supportable architecture for client connection that anyone can afford and deploy.