Patent ID: 8868756

Claim:
A method of sticky routing of user connections to a distributed service comprising multiple data centers, the method comprising: receiving a first service request from a first device operated by a first user to initiate a first session with the distributed service; assigning the first user to a first user bucket that is online, wherein the first user bucket: is associated with a first data center; persists across multiple sessions of the first user with the distributed service; can have one of the following states: online, wherein an online bucket is available to receive new users: offline, wherein users assigned to an offline bucket are expelled from the bucket; and closed, wherein a closed bucket is not available to receive new users; and includes multiple users other than the first user; storing first sticky routing data for the first user, wherein the first sticky routing data comprises: a member ID; an identifier of the first user bucket; and a generation of the first user bucket; and routing the first service request to the first data center.