Patent ID: 8756320

Claim:
A web service grid architecture, comprising: a computer machine including a web server and a service request router; the web server operating on the computer machine and connected to a computer network; the web server operating on a computer machine and being configured to receive a web service request via a computer machine from a subscriber; and the service request router operating on the computer machine communicatively interconnected to the web server and to a plurality of service cells each having a respective web service source with respective request forms; at least two of the respective request forms being different than each other; the service cells being configured to fulfill a service request from a requestor, authorized by subscriber and corresponding to a single call, via the web server operating on a computer machine by selecting a single service cell at run time from the plurality of functionally equivalent service cells in a manner that is transparent to the subscriber, to fulfill the request; wherein the single service cell is selected to be a selected service cell at run time from the plurality of functionally equivalent service cells based on performance, cost and availability of the respective web service source for the plurality of functionally equivalent service cells; wherein the service cells are selected from the group consisting of live cells and test cells; a service interface having a standard form corresponding to the respective request forms that are different than each other; an adapter communicatively interconnected to the service interface; the adapter being configured to conform the standard form to the different forms of the web service sources; and the selected service cell being configured by a computer machine to fulfill the service request from a requestor by a single call directly to the web server without direct communication between the requestor and a web service source; subsequent calls, in a stateful session started by the single call, being automatically forwarded to and automatically fulfilled by the same selected service cell.