What is a disadvantage of clustering compared to load balancing?

In the context of clustering versus load balancing, one of the significant disadvantages of clustering is that it often requires third-party products for efficient HTTP load balancing. While clustering can distribute workloads across multiple servers, it may not inherently manage the traffic distribution as effectively as dedicated load balancing solutions do. Load balancers are specifically designed to handle incoming requests and route them to the appropriate server based on various algorithms and criteria, optimizing resource usage and ensuring high availability.

On the other hand, clustering focuses on integrating multiple server resources for redundancy and fault tolerance. However, without a dedicated load balancing solution in place, the system's ability to manage incoming requests efficiently can be compromised. This dependency on additional tools or products can complicate the deployment architecture and add another layer of management, thereby highlighting a key disadvantage of using clustering for this purpose compared to deploying a dedicated load balancer.