When it is enabled, it allows the COBOL sub-system to verify/validate memory addresses as they are used by a program. This means that when memory operations occur, the system is able to validate that only the assigned memory has been used. If this is not the case, an exception will be generated at the point that the corruption is detected. The Memory Strategy facility provides a fine-grained control over which processes are checked, and the extent of the checking that is done: this keeps the overhead of enabling Memory Strategy to a minimum.