HiperSockets is an IBM technology for high-speed communications between partitions on a server with a hypervisor.
Although applications perceive no functional differences, HiperSockets require less processing overhead on either side of the connections, improving performance.
Since they are memory-based, they operate at memory speeds, reducing network latency and improving end-user performance, especially for complex applications which would otherwise require multiple network hops to fulfill requests.
HiperSockets also provide security benefits, especially on the memory key-protected mainframe, even without encryption, because there is no opportunity to intercept a network connection.
Moreover, HiperSockets improve reliability and availability because there are no network hubs, routers, adapters, or wires to break.