WS to OAS Migrate Opinions Wanted: Multiple JVMs -or- Multiple Instances?

We are working on a project to migrate from WebSphere app server to OAS web app server. We are trying to make our environment similar to WebSphere and there is 1 key difference: with WebSphere you set up multiple cluster members which provide (among other things) JVMs. With OAS we can set up multiple application servers that are comparable to the cluster member instances in WebSphere. The other possibility is to have multiple (island) JVMs without multiple application servers.

I am curious if anyone else has an opinion on which is the best route. Multiple OAS app servers gives the ability to shut down JVMs independently like WebSphere. Multiple island OAS JVMs cannot be shut down from the console independently but there are fewer copies of files (JAS.ini, jdbj.ini, jdelog.properties, etc.). What is your opinion of the best way?

With either WS or OAS I would go for multiple application servers...it gives you more flexibility/scalability. With the introduction of server manager in 8.97 I would not worry too much about maintaining copies of your ini files.