What Does Transparency Mean?

Techopedia Explains Transparency

  • Access transparency - Clients and users should be unaware of the distribution of files in terms of specific servers or physical location; the files simply have to be available and accessible whenever they are required.
  • Location transparency - Files should be seen by clients as a uniform namespace so that, even when they are relocated, the pathnames remain the same. A location transparent name should contain no information about the object’s physical location.
  • Performance transparency - The system can be reconfigured to improve performance as the load fluctuates but this process should be transparent to the user who is using the system.
  • Migration transparency - Information and processes can be migrated or moved from one physical server to the next within the system, with the user being unaware that this is going on. This is related to performance transparency as this is often done for load balancing to improve performance.