Patent ID: 7650514

Claim:
A computer-implemented method implemented by a computing device having a processor executing instructions stored in a computer-readable storage media, the method comprising: receiving, by the computing device, one or more lease requests for access to selected data, wherein the computing device manages access to the selected data based upon issuance of leases to client computers requesting to access the selected data, wherein each lease issued specifies a period of time during which a client computer has access to the data during which period of time the selected data will not be changed by another entity; in response to receiving a request from one of the client computers for a lease to access the selected data having access managed by the computing device, preparing a blanket scalable lease to be used by more than one client computer to concurrently access the selected data having access managed by the computing device; and issuing the scalable lease by the computing device to a plurality of the client computers for the plurality of client computers to use the scalable lease for accessing the selected data for the specified period of time during which the selected data is not changed.