Patent ID: 8239535

Claim:
A system for responding to requests for data from a client device, the system comprising: a front-end server configured to: receive a request for data from a client; identify a data set to be retrieved, wherein the identified data set comprises stored data that corresponds to the requested data; identify a plurality of slices of data to be retrieved, wherein each identified slice of data to be retrieved comprises a complete uncompromised segment of the identified data set that can be used to provide a statistically valid response to the request for data such that the front-end server is capable of generating a statistically valid response to the request upon receiving data corresponding to less than all of the plurality of slices of data identified; generate a plurality of sub-requests, wherein each of the plurality of sub-requests corresponds to an identified slice of data to be retrieved; communicate the plurality of sub-requests to one or more of a plurality of back-end servers; receive data corresponding to less than all of the plurality of slices of data identified; and generate, in response to receiving data corresponding to less than all of the plurality of slices of data identified, a statistically valid response to the request for data, wherein to generate the statistically valid response, the front-end server is further configured to scale the data received to account for data that is not received; wherein each respective back-end server is configured to: receive one or more of the plurality of sub-requests from the first front-end server; load, from a database, a portion of the stored data corresponding to the identified slice of data to be retrieved that corresponds to the one or more sub-requests received at the respective back-end server; and transmit, to the front-end server, data corresponding to the identified slice of data loaded from the database; and wherein the database comprises the stored data, wherein the database is configured to communicate, to each respective back-end server, a portion of the stored data corresponding to the identified slice of data to be retrieved that corresponds to the one or more sub-requests received at the respective back-end server.