Patent ID: 7580971

Claim:
A computer implemented method for responding to a data request in an n-tier computer network environment, comprising: receiving the data request for data of a particular type from a data request generator; determining whether a partial database in a local database cache of a client computing system contains the data, the local database cache communicatively coupled to the data request generator, wherein the act of determining whether the partial database contains the data is performed by a processor; routing the data request to a peer database cache of a first peer client computing system of the client computing system based at least in part on a result from the act of determining, wherein the first peer client computing system of the client computing system is on a same tier with the local database cache server of the client computing system in an n-tier computer architecture; and tracking data stored in the peer database cache or in the partial database and storing a response to the data request to a location in the peer database cache or in the partial database based on a result of an act of comparing a statistic for the data request to a predetermined statistic.