These systems provide an environment for storing data reliably and provide efficient management and retrieval. Component-based software objects hide the underlying database details, including their physical locations. Java technology is used in the framework to promote portability across heterogeneous platforms. Combining these technologies with standard distributed system principles we set out to create an architecture that promotes location independence, resource optimization, maintainability, and legacy system support. Smart software components are deployed over the Internet that allow clients that support OODT's interfaces to access the partner science data systems through the Resource Location Service.
Tools can use APIs to submit parallel queries to distributed profiles.
Profiles that can support the query will return results of data systems that contain the product, or in some cases it will return a direct hypertext link to the product itself. Products which are inside proprietary databases can be accessed through a capability that OODT is developing called a product server. Product servers wrap legacy data systems and provide a mapping from the OODT query system into the proprietary data system which may be a database, a flat file system, or some other data store. OODT queries can be made using an XML query definition and is supported by both profile and product servers. The Resource Location Service provides the integrated profile and product server environment that allows for queries and products to be searched and retrieved from a distributed data system environment.