There are two types of sysplex: base and parallel.

• A base sysplex is a sysplex implementation without a coupling facility.
• A parallel sysplex is a sysplex implementation with a coupling facility.

Systems in a base sysplex communicate using channel-to-channel (CTC) communications. In addition to CTC communications, systems in a parallel sysplex use a coupling facility (CF), which is a microprocessor unit that enables high performance sysplex data sharing. Because parallel systems allow faster data sharing, workloads can be processed more efficiently.