Patent ID: 7937493

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for routing work requests to a computing system that comprises a plurality of computing nodes that each hosts a server instance that provides a service that performs work, the method comprising: receiving a request for a connection to said computing system for requesting said service; identifying a pool of connections that is associated with said service, wherein each connection in said pool is a connection to, and recognized by, a particular server instance; wherein a first connection associated with said service is a connection to and recognized by a first server instance and a second connection associated with said service is a connection to and recognized by a second server instance, wherein the first connection is not the same as the second connection, and the first server instance is not the same as the second server instance; wherein said each connection is one of a plurality of connections that simultaneously existed in said pool prior to receiving said request for a connection; and selecting, from said pool, a connection that is associated with said service, to route a request for performance of work associated with said service; wherein said selecting is based on substantially current performance information about server instances that offer said service that is associated with said selected connection; wherein the performance information for each of said instances that offer said service includes a value representing a percentage of work to route to said instance; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.