Patent ID: 7720818

Claim:
An account management system, comprising: a tiered memory subsystem that maintains account records for customers of a provider of goods or services; a processor subsystem coupled to said tiered memory subsystem; and an account management application, said account management application residing within said processor subsystem and accessible to said customers via a network; said tiered memory subsystem maintaining account records within a first age range in a first tier of said tiered memory subsystem and maintaining compressed account records within a second age range in a second tier of said tiered memory subsystem; an archival application residing in said processor subsystem, said archival application attending to the compression and transfer of account records from said first tier of said tiered memory subsystem to said second tier of said tiered memory subsystem when said account records age from a first age within said first age range to a second age within said second age range, wherein the first age is not within the second age range and wherein the second age is not within the first age range; wherein said account management application enables said customers to view via said network said account records maintained in said first tier of said tiered memory subsystem but does not enable said customer to view said compressed account records maintained in said second tier of said tiered memory subsystem; wherein said first tier of said tiered memory subsystem includes a database in which said account records within said first age range are maintained and a data file in which an index to said compressed account records maintained in said second tier of said tiered memory subsystem is maintained; for each account record compressed and transferred from said first tier of said tiered memory subsystem to said second tier of said tiered memory subsystem, said archival application constructs a corresponding entry for inclusion in said index; wherein each account record that is compressed and transferred from said first tier of said tiered memory subsystem to said second tier of said tiered memory subsystem is transferred to a flat file, the flat file having a flat file identification and the flat file being configured to receive a plurality of the account records; and each entry in said index identifying a location, by the flat file identification and an offset within said flat file, within said second tier of said tiered memory subsystem, for a corresponding account record.