Applications must operate across a wide range of physical computing. The goal of standalone or clustered configurations is to present the user, and application, with a consistent operating environment regardless of the physical technologies actually used to implement that environment.

Many OpenVMS Cluster systems include a multitude of different processors, each with different peripheral configurations and capabilities. Many organizations also have multiple standalone OpenVMS systems running identical or nearly identical applications on different hardware configurations. Disaster tolerant (DT) configurations can further complicate the environment by introducing propagation delay and other consequences of physical differences into the environment.

OpenVMS clustering technology was introduced before the popularization of object-oriented terminology and the codification of its concepts. However, object-oriented concepts, particularly inheritance, well describe OpenVMS in clustered environments. Principles of inheritance are particularly apt when implementing functionally identical environments upon different physical environments. Architectures employing inheritance realize significant reductions in total cost of ownership (TCO) and correspondingly large improvements in portability and operational transparency.

In contrast with many other operating systems, the iterative nature of the OpenVMS logical name facility enables the use of multiple levels of translation with corresponding default values for each level. This flexibility permits OpenVMS systems to assimilate dramatic changes in operating environment with a change to a single logical name at a variety of levels, dramatically reducing TCO.

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