Patent ID: 7925696

Claim:
A method performed at a first server for providing access to a partitioned resource comprising: (a) receiving a request at the first server from a client via a network connection, the request being a request by the client for access to at least a portion of the resource; (b) accessing a routing table to identify which one of a plurality of equivalent servers in a server group is a responsible equivalent server for the resource, the routing table indicating that a first portion of the resource resides on a first one of the equivalent servers and that a second portion of the resource resides on a second one of the equivalent servers; and (c) if the routing table indicates the responsible equivalent server for the resource is not the first server at which the request was received from the client, then: (i) maintaining the network connection from the first server to the client; (ii) forwarding the request for access to the resource to the responsible equivalent server for the requested portion; (iii) receiving the requested portion of the resource from the responsible equivalent server; and (iv) returning the requested portion of the resource to the client from the first server.