Patent ID: 8495221

Claim:
A content delivery system for coordinating provisions of storage service for clients, the system comprising: a service-provider database running on a server that stores, for each independently owned and operated storage provider of a set of independently owned and operated storage providers, a metric characterizing a property of a service provided by the independently owned and operated storage provider, wherein the metrics are updated in response to a change in the metrics; a selection engine that repeatedly selects an independently owned and operated storage provider from the set of independently owned and operated storage providers to store a content object of a client of the content delivery system and generates a score for each independently owned and operated storage provider of the set of independently owned and operated storage providers, the score depending on a set of metrics associated with the independently owned and operated storage provider, the selection being based on the repeatedly updated metrics and the generated scores for the set of independently owned and operated storage providers; and a service manager that, for each independently owned and operated storage provider selected by the selection engine to store the content object of the client, coordinates with the independently owned and operated storage provider such that the independently owned and operated storage provider stores the content object of the client.