Productive districts
Introduction
An industrial cluster (or simply cluster)[1][2][3][4] is a concept born in the early 90s as a tool for the analysis of those factors that allow a specific industry to incorporate new links in its production chain, the factors that determine the use of new technologies in its processes, and the determining factors of the generation of agglomeration activities.[5] These ideas come from the pioneering work of Michael Porter and collaborators,[n 1] who analyze the acquisition – by territorial concentrations of companies – of comparative advantages in certain sectors of global manufacturing trade.[6].
In this context, Porter defines "cluster" as concentrations of interconnected companies and institutions in a particular field for competition,[7] and a wide variety of clusters can be observed in the world in industries such as automotive, information technology, tourism, business services, mining, oil and gas, agricultural products, transportation, manufacturing products and logistics, among others.
Since Porter's pioneering work, however, a great variety of research, approaches and analytical perspectives have appeared, which in practice does not allow us to affirm a priori a definition that satisfies or brings together the elements that each author considers relevant; indeed,.
What the majority does agree on is that cluster analysis is a very useful analytical instrument when it comes to describing the complexity of productive activities and to understand the relationship they have with the territory,[9] although some authors indicate that a convergence of definitions could be seen with that of Marshall's industrial district.[6].
However, it is possible to indicate some representative definitions of what a cluster is, in addition to some elements inherent to its conceptualization, which can be grouped into three large groups: industrial clusters, regional clusters and industrial districts,[8] that differ in the methodologies developed to undertake their analysis.
In computing and technology, a cluster refers to a group of interconnected computers or servers that work together as if they were a single entity. These machines are configured so that they can share resources and distribute tasks among themselves for greater performance, reliability, and service availability. Clusters are widely used in high-performance applications, distributed computing, high-volume data processing, and high-availability servers.
In a computing cluster, each node (computer or server) contributes its processing power, memory, and storage to perform tasks in a parallel and scalable manner. Clusters can be of different types, such as high availability clusters, load balancing clusters, storage clusters, among others.