The Virtual Interface (VI) Architecture specification defines an industry-standard architecture for communication within clusters of servers and workstations. These clusters enable enterprise-class performance and scalability utilizing standards-based servers as building blocks. VI Architecture standardizes the interface for high-performance network technologies known as System Area Networks (SANs). Utilizing a SAN, VI Architecture transforms a collection of independent standards-based servers into a highly scalable cluster that can meet the performance and capacity requirements of the largest and most demanding enterprise applications. Its fast server-to-server communications can enhance an application’s scalability and performance in a variety of ways – from allowing a single application to run efficiently across dozens of clustered nodes, to speeding up the exchange of data between distributed application modules running on different application servers.