Patent ID: 8261026

Claim:
A method for operating a server application instance on a server computer in a data center environment while utilizing a server application cache for storing cached data, said method comprising: initiating startup of a server application instance; locating a set of running server application instances that are running in the data center environment and which correspond to the server application instance being started, the set of running server application instances being configured to distribute a load of network requests amongst the running server application instances that are running in the data center environment, with each of the running server application instances having a respective server application cache for storing its associated cached data; scoring a plurality of the server application caches based at least in part upon usefulness of associated cached data stored therein to the server application instance being started, so as to obtain a plurality of server application cache scores; selecting based at least in part upon the plurality of server application cache scores a server application cache corresponding to one of the running server application instances from the set of running server application instances; retrieving cached data associated with the selected server application cache corresponding to the one of the running server application instances; and storing the retrieved cached data in a server application cache for the server application instance being started.