Patent ID: 8260940

Claim:
A system configured to manage service requests, the system comprising: a load balancing device of a service provider that includes one or more hardware components; a communication processing component executing on the load balancing device, the communication processing component being configured to route multiple client service requests received from multiple client devices to multiple service components of the service provider in a manner that provides load balancing capabilities for the multiple service components; multiple server devices of the service provider that each execute one of the multiple service components and each have a distinct service instance identifier, each of the service components being associated with the service instance identifier for the server device on which the service component executes and being configured to respond to multiple client service requests that are each from one of the multiple client devices and are routed to the service component by the communication processing component, the responding by a service component to each of the multiple client service requests from one of the client devices including processing the client service request and providing to the one client device a service response that includes at least a connection lease and the associated service instance identifier for the service component, the connection lease indicating a duration that the one client device is able to communicate directly with the service component without communicating with the communication processing component, the indicated duration being at least one of a time duration, of a number of client services requests, and of an amount of data; and multiple client communication components that each execute on one of multiple client devices remote from the load balancing device and from the multiple server devices, each of the client communication components being configured to: send a first client service request to the communication processing component on the load balancing device; receive a first service response provided by one of the multiple service components in response to the first client service request, the first service response including a specified service instance identifier and a specified connection lease; and prior to sending one or more subsequent client service requests directly to the one service component that provided the first service response, determine whether the specified connection lease has expired; and if the determining indicates that the specified connection lease has not expired, use the specified service instance identifier to send the one or more subsequent client service requests directly to the one service component that provided the first service response, so that the communication processing component on the load balancing device is bypassed for the one or more subsequent client service requests.