Patent ID: 6947982

Claim:
A system for providing web services, comprising: a plurality of web servers capable of hosting web browsing sessions, each session having session data associated therewith, each web server operable to: store all of the session data for each session hosted by the web server; and host each session without accessing session data from a remote location unless the web server is hosting the session for another web server that has failed; a local director connected to a communications link and to the web servers, wherein the local director routes requests, each associated with a session, from remote browsers to a web server hosting the associated session; and at least two remote session servers, each connected to a corresponding one or more of the plurality of web servers and operable to store a copy of the session data that is stored on its corresponding one or more web servers such that the session data for its corresponding one or more web servers is backed up on the remote session server; the system operable to, when a particular one of the at least two remote session servers goes down, for each session for which a copy of its session data was stored on the particular remote session server, copy the session data for that session from the web server hosting that session to another remote session server of the at least two remote session servers such that the session data for that session will continue to be backed up on a functioning remote session server.