Patent ID: 8484376

Claim:
A computer implemented method, comprising: receiving, by a computing device comprising a content based router, from a client over a network of a distributed computing system, a message directed to a first version of a service, the first version of the service being hosted by a first node and having a first service address; determining whether the message is at least partially compatible with a second version of the service hosted by a second node and having a second service address, wherein determining whether the message is at least partially compatible with the second version of the service comprises processing the message by a rules engine using a version compatibility rule that indicates incompatibilities between versions of the service and a forwarding rule that identifies one or more versions of the service to forward the message to, and wherein the message is partially compatible with the second version of the service if the message will not require use of an incompatible function or component of the second version of the service; determining whether to transmit the message to the second version of the service instead of to the first version of the service based on whether the message is at least partially compatible with the second version of the service; transmitting, by the computing device, the message over the network to the second version of the service instead of to the first version of the service if the message is at least partially compatible with the second version of the service; and transmitting the message over the network to the first version of the service if the message is not at least partially compatible with the second version of the service.