At the startup I'm working at we are now considering scaling solutions for our database. Things get somewhat confusing (for me at least) with MySQL, which has the MySQL cluster, replication and MySQL cluster replication (from ver. 5.1.6), which is an asynchronous version of the MySQL cluster. The MySQL manual explains some of the differences in its cluster FAQ, but it is hard to ascertain from it when to use one or the other.
I would appreciate any advice from people who are familiar with the differences between those solutions and what are the pros and cons, and when do you recommend to use each.