Patent ID: 7552284

Claim:
A method, comprising: configuring management of a region of a cache with an eviction policy plug-in, said eviction policy plug-in comprising an eviction timing component and a sorting component, said eviction timing component comprising program code to implement an eviction timing method, said eviction timing method to trigger eviction of an object from said region of cache, said sorting component comprising program code to implement a sorting method, said sorting method to identify an object that is eligible for eviction from said region of cache; managing said region of cache by executing said eviction timing method and said sorting method from said plug-in, said executing of said eviction timing method including triggering said sorting method because said region of cache's usage surpasses a threshold and referring to per-object customized attributes of objects cached in said region of cache to identify any per-object customized eviction timing policies amongst said objects, said threshold less than said region's full storage capacity, said executing of said eviction sorting method including identifying an object for eviction that is cached in said region of cache and that has been used less frequently than other objects that are cached in said region of cache, wherein said object is a member of a shared closure having a plurality of objects and cached in a shared memory in a computing system, said shared closure being shareable to a plurality of virtual machines.