Patent ID: 8543702

Claim:
A computer implemented storage system, comprising: a service provider that receives requests from a client computing device for a resource; and a set of cache server components associated with the service provider, the set of cache server components having a first cache server component and a second cache server component, wherein the first cache server component and the second cache server component are hierarchically arranged such that the second cache server component corresponds to a level of a resource cache component hierarchy higher than the first cache server component; the set of cache server components operative to: upon receipt of a request for a resource at the first cache server component of the set of cache server components, store the resource at the first cache server component according to initial first expiration data and at the second cache server component according to initial second expiration data, the initial first expiration data less than the initial second expiration data; upon expiration of the initial first expiration data, transmit a request for the resource from the first cache server component to the second cache server component; and associate updated first expiration data based on at least one of a total number of requests for the resource transmitted by the first cache server component to the second cache server component and time elapsed from the receipt of the transmission of the request from the first cache server component, wherein the updated first expiration data is based on the relationship of the first cache server component relative to other cache server components in the resource cache component hierarchy, and wherein associating the updated first expiration data comprises assigning shorter expiration data of the resource at the first cache server component than at cache server components at successively higher levels of the resource cache component hierarchy.