Patent ID: 7685367

Claim:
In a computing environment including a server system that provides data to client systems and wherein the server system comprises a plurality of caches for storing data, a method of caching data requested by a client at a least expensive cache first, the method comprising acts of: receiving data to be cached at a cache; determining that the data has not been previously cached at a preceding cache; and when the data has not been previously cached at a preceding cache, then determining whether the cache includes functional capability for caching the data based on settings defining what particular types of data should be cached when generated by events, and by (i) comparing the functional capability of the cache with a common set of such settings as stored in an object applicable to the plurality of caches, the common set of such settings applying to all of the plurality of caches, and (ii) comparing the functional capability of the cache with a set of coordinated settings applicable to the plurality of caches, wherein the set of coordinated settings defines what particular types of data should be cached when generated by events and that are a collection of individual settings for each of the caches in the plurality of caches, and wherein comparing the functional capability of the cache with the common set of settings and the coordinated settings, includes considering at least the speed and/or expense of the cache; and then caching the data at the cache once the functional capability for caching the data has been determined.