Patent ID: 8234243

Claim:
A machine-implemented method for asynchronously replicating information of a persisted data store, the machine-implemented method comprising: writing the information to an active persisted data store; and asynchronously replicating the information to at least one other data store, by an application calling an application program interface to perform a third tier commit, the application program interface for performing the third tier commit being capable of performing each of a plurality of types of third tier commits with respect to the asynchronous replicating, the plurality of types of third tier commits with respect to the asynchronous replicating including a durable third tier commit and a non-durable third tier commit, the application indicating, via the application program interface, one of the plurality of types of third tier commits to perform with respect to the information replicated to the at least one other data store and whether to wait for fewer than all acknowledgments with respect to the asynchronous replicating to every one of the at least one data store when the at least one data store includes a plurality of data stores, wherein the calling the application program interface to perform the third tier commit further comprises: providing, by the application when calling the application program interface, a parameter indicating an amount of time to wait for at least one acknowledgement that the information is committed, according to the indicated one of the plurality of types of third tier commits, before continuing.