Patent ID: 8925022

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a processing apparatus at a first server, a request for content from a client device; determining that the content is not stored by the first server; determining that a second server has the content; determining that a third server has the content; in response to receiving the request for the content, determining that a second cost associated with retrieving the content from the second server is less than a third cost associated with retrieving the content from the third server, wherein the second cost is based on traffic which is predicted to occur over a most utilized link to the second server, and wherein the third cost is based on traffic which is predicted to occur over a most utilized link to the third server; and in response to determining that the second cost is less than the third cost, requesting the content from the second server, wherein the first server, the second server, and the third server each maintain a different subset of content available from a master server.