Geographically distributing web services can be done using many methods, at various levels of the networking protocols. OES suggests using the DNS name resolution process to return the IP address of the correct server. Using DNS offers several advantages:

• Simplicity. All servers may be configured identically. The servers need not know about the existence of their counterparts elsewhere on the Internet.


• Transparency. DNS is much simpler than higher-level protocols, such as HTTP. The simplicity of a name resolution ensures 100% compatibility with all Internet standards.


• Scalability. Adding and removing servers is merely adding and removing IP addresses to the availability pool.


• Upgradability. Adding content, software, or even an entire server may be done on the Internet, but without adding the new IP address to the pool. This effects a testing environment which is identical to the production environment. When the service is ready, add the IP address to the availability pool.