Thanks for all your input, especially Sandeep and Indy. It looks like virtualization is the way to go if I want a loss-less failover solution. I think I will start a new thread for this project and stop hijacking this thread, as it is no longer really about a generic "dream network". GoBruins, since you pointed out the VM thread and yet still expressed the dilemma of instant failover, were you going to experiment with Replica as well?