Method of satisfying a demand on a network for a network resource, method of sharing the demand for resources between a plurality of networked resource servers, server network, demand director server, networked data library, method of network resource management, method of satisfying a demand on an internet network for a network resource, tier of resource serving servers, network, demand director, metropolitan video serving network, computer readable memory device encoded with a data structure for managing networked resources, method of making available computer network resources to users of a

• US 20040010544A1
• Filed: 06/09/2003
• Published: 01/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Sparkes, Andrew Michael, Watkins, Mark Robert, Slater, Alastair Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,822,862 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3433 for load management allocation of a server based on load conditions G06F9/505; load rebalancing G06F9/5083; redistributing the load in a network by a load balancer H04L67/1029
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/70 of video data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet

Abstract

A demand on a server farm or local area network for a farm or network resource is satisfied. The farm or network has a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource, and a second resource server having a second, different, resource. The director server is aware of what resources are held on the first and second resource servers. In response to a request for one of the first and second resources, one of the first and second resource servers is selected to serve out the requested resource and direct the request to the selected one of the first and second resource servers. The demand server selects an appropriate one of the resource servers to receive the request using its knowledge of where the requested resource is located.

Claims

1. A method of satisfying a demand on a server farm or local area network for a farm or network resource, the farm or network including a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource thereon, and a second resource server having a second, different, resource thereon, said director server being aware of what resources are held on said first and second resource servers, the method comprising responding to a request for one of said first and second resources by (a) selecting one of said first and second resource servers to serve out said requested resource and (b) directing said request to said selected one of said first and second resource servers, selecting an appropriate one of said first and second resource servers to receive said request using its knowledge of where the requested resource is located by using said demand server.

4. Applying the method of claim 1 to resource servers networked so as to be accessible as a group using a common network address input by a requesting party.

5. Applying the method of claim 4 to a world-wide web farm of networked servers.

6. A method according to claim 5 wherein at least one of said first and second resources comprises one of the group:

(1) video

(2) partitionable data

(3) data files

(4) data objects.

7. A method according to claim 1 wherein said request is serviced by whichever resource server is adjudged to be most able to serve out said requested resource.

8. A method according to claim 1 wherein the requested selected resource server serves up a reply to said request in such a way that said reply appears to a requester who made said request to be coming from said demand director.

9. A method according to claim 1 further comprising creating a copied resource by copying resource from one of said resource servers onto another of said resource servers, and having said demand director be aware that said copied resource exists on said another resource server.

10. A method according to claim 9 wherein said resource is scored out by said resource servers by application serving software which serves out resource data from a resource data memory, and wherein said demand director server assesses the availability of said application software to serve out an additional resource from said resource servers in the selection of an appropriate one of said resource servers, and wherein said application software is (a) copied to a resource server, or (b) already installed application software in said resource server is brought up to run on said server, or (c) application installing software already on said server, or (d) transmitted to such server is activated to cause said application software to be installed and run on said server, thereby increasing the ability of said resource server to serve out said resource data in response to a new request for said resources to be served out.

11. A method according to claim 10 further comprising the step of deleting or uninstalling, or cease running, application serving resource software from a selected resource server, thereby freeing-up said selected resource server capabilities for use to serve up a different resource.

12. A method according to claim 10 comprising dynamically distributing at least one of servable resources and resource serving application software between available resource servers dependent upon demand for said resources, and varying the capacity of said resource servers collectively to serve out demand for a particular resource dependent upon the demand for said particular resource.

13. A method according to claim 1 wherein said demand director server is capable of communicating with an additional resource server that previously was not making its resources available for serving requests received by said demand director server, and arranging for said additional resource server to make its resources available for serving requests received by said demand director server.

27. A memory storing a program for managing the distribution of resources over a plurality of resource servers, the program when running causing the method of claim 1 to be performed

2. A method of satisfying a demand on a server farm or local area network for a farm or network resource, the farm or network including a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource thereon, and a second resource server having a second resource thereon, said director server being aware of unused resource-serving capacity of said first resource server and of unused resource-serving capacity of said second resource-server, the method comprising said director server responding to a request for a requested resource which is present on both said first resource server and said second resource server by selecting a selected one of said first and second resource servers to be the resource server that serves said requested resource, said director server selecting said selected one of said resource servers using a knowledge of whether or not said first and second resource servers have unused resource-serving capacity capable of serving said requested resource.

3. A method of sharing the demand for resources between a plurality of server farm servers or local area network networked resource servers, dissimilar resource content being on at least some different resource servers, knowledge of what resource being available for serving out from which of said networked resources servers being available, knowledge of said resource servers'"'"' current capacity to satisfy a request for resources that they are capable of serving being available, the method comprising allocating a request for a requested resource to a selected resource server chosen with the knowledge that it has said requested resource available for serving and that it has the capacity to serve out said requested resource satisfactorily.

14. A server farm or local area network comprising a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource on it, and a second resource server having a second resource, the second resource being different from said first resource, said director server being aware of where said first and second resources are located, and being capable of receiving a request for a selected one of said first or second resource to be served out of said network, and of directing said request to whichever said resource server is determined to have said requested resource.

18. A server farm or local area network according to claim 14 wherein said first resource server and said director server are included in the same server.

19. A server farm or local area network according to claim 14 wherein said first and second resources comprise partitionable data.

20. A server farm or local area network according to claim 14 wherein said demand director server is adapted to add another resource server to said network if additional capacity to serve out resources is required.

59. A server farm or local area network according to claim 14 wherein at least two resource servers have servable content of the same kind that is different, in terms of specific items or titles servable out by said resource servers, by a percentage from the list:

(i) at least 20% different

(ii) at least 40% different

(iii) at least 50% different

(iv) at least 60% different

(v) at least 80% different

(vi) substantially 100% different.

60. A server farm or local area network or tier according to claim 59 in which at least half of said resource servers have content that differs from content on other resource servers by a percentage, in terms of specific items, or titles, servable, by:

(i) at least 10%

(ii) at least 20%

(iii) at least 40%

(iv) at least 50%

(v) at least 60%

(vi) at least 80%

(vii) substantially all different servable content.

90. A memory storing a program for managing the distribution of resources over a plurality of resource servers, the program when running on a server networked with other local servers, comprising resource servers, causes the server farm or local area network of claim 14 to be produced.

15. A server farm or local area network comprising a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource thereon, and a second resource server having a second resource thereon;

said demand director server being adapted to be aware of unused resource-serving capacity of said first resource server and of said second resource server, and said director server being capable, upon receipt of a demand for a requested resource that is present on both said first and said second resource servers, of selecting a selected one of said first or second resource servers to serve out said requested resource and causing said selected one of said first or second resource servers to serve out said requested resource, said demand director being adapted to use knowledge of said unused resource-serving capacities for said selected resource of said first and second resource servers when selecting which resource server is to be said selected resource server and serve out said selected resource.

16. A server farm or local area network according to claim 15 wherein said first resource server includes a plurality of different said resources and said second resource server includes a plurality of different said resources, said plurality of different said servers comprising streamable video data and different serving out application software capable of serving out said video data in different formats.

17. A server farm or local area network according to claim 15 wherein said demand server is adapted to select whichever of said first or second resource servers has a greater currently unused capacity to serve out said requested resource in a form capable of satisfying the requirements of the demand for resource received by the demand director.

21. A server farm or local area network according to claim 15 wherein said demand director server is adapted to perform or initiate the performance of

(i) copying of resource or application software from a resource server to another resource server;

or

(ii) at least one of deletion of resource or application software from a resource server and replacement of said resource or application system with a different resource or application software;

or

(iii) both activity (i) and activity (ii).

26. A networked data library comprising at least two server farms according to claim 16.

22. A demand director server adapted for use with a plurality of resource-serving resource servers having resources distributed between them, said demand director being arranged for (a) monitoring and managing distribution of resources across said resource servers, and (b) mediating requests for resources to be served out by said resource servers so as to direct a request for resource-serving to a chosen resource server chosen by said demand director using a knowledge of which resource servers are capable of serving out the requested resource.

23. A demand director server according to claim 22 wherein information relating to at least one of telecommunications availability and resource server processing power availability is a factor in determining which resource servers are capable of serving out said requested resource.

24. A demand director server according to claim 23 configured to direct said request to whichever resource server has the best ability to serve out said requested resource.

25. A demand director server according to claim 22 arranged for performing or causing to be performed at least one of the operations:

(i) copying resource from one resource server to another;

(ii) copying resource within a resource server so as to make said resource more available for serving;

(iii) at least one of deleting resource from a resource server and replacing it with different resource;

(iv) bring up or down resource-serving application software on a resource server;

(v) copying resource-serving application software within a resource server or from one resource server to another;

(vi) activating resource-serving application installation software in a resource server;

(vii) copying resource serving application installing software in a resource server.

83. The server of claim 25 wherein the server is arranged to perform at least two of operations (i) to (vii).

84. The server of claim 25 wherein the server is arranged to perform at least four of operations (i) to (vii).

85. The server of claim 25 wherein the server is arranged to perform all of operations (i) to (vii).

89. A memory storing a program for managing the distribution of resources over a plurality of resource servers, the program when running on a server causing the server to be the demand director server of claim 22.

28. A method of operating a farm or local area network comprising the steps of, in a server farm or local area network having a demand director and resource serving servers:

(i) receiving at a demand director a request for a resource from a requester;

(ii) determining the availability of resource serving servers that are capable of serving said requested resource;

(iii) selecting a resource server that is capable of serving said requested resource and sending said request to the selected resource server;

(iv) establishing a connection between said requester and said selected resource server; and

(v) serving out said selected resource from said selected resource server to said requester.

29. A method according to claim 28 wherein said resource comprises a rich media product from the list:

(i) video

(ii) audio

(ii) visual

(iv) multimedia

(v) other rich media.

30. A method according to claim 29 comprising connecting to said farm or local area network an additional server having said additional resource available on it for serving out to provide additional serving-out capacity.

31. A method of satisfying a demand on an Internet wide area network for a server farm or local area network resource, the method being performed by a demand director server for the server farm or local area network with a first resource server having a first resource including one of a video file and a data file thereon, and a second resource server having a second, different, resource including one of a video file and a data file thereon;

said director server being aware of what resources are held on said first and second resource servers, the method comprising responding to a request for one of said first and second resources by selecting one of said first and second resource servers to serve out said requested resource and directing said request to said selected one of said first and second resource servers; and

selecting an appropriate one of said first and second resource servers to receive said request using its knowledge of where the requested resource is located.

50. A method according to claim 31 wherein said Internet network comprises a metropolitan area network.

32. A method of satisfying a demand on an Internet network for a server farm or local area network resource, the server farm or local area network having a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource including one of a video file and a data file thereon, and a second resource server having a second resource including one of a video file and a data file thereon;

said director server being aware of unused resource-serving capacity of said first resource server and of unused resource-serving capacity of said second resource-server, the method comprising causing said director server to respond to a request for a requested resource which is present on both said first resource server and said second resource server to select a selected one of said first and second resource servers to be the resource server that serves said requested resource, said director server selecting said selected one of said resource servers using a knowledge of whether or not said first and second resource servers have unused resource-serving capacity capable of serving said requested resource.

33. A web or network tier of resource serving servers comprising a plurality of resource servers at least some of which have different servable resource content of the same kind or class, the servers being arranged for enabling a specific resource of a kind or class to be served out of one resource server but not another, a plurality of resource servers having resources of said same kind or class.

34. A tier according to claim 33 further comprising a demand director server which is aware of which resources are servable out of which resource servers, and which is capable of receiving a request for a particular resource and directing said request to a resource server capable of satisfying said request.

35. Performing a method with the tier of claim 34, wherein each of the servers has the same resources available for serving out, and changing the resources on at least one tier resource server to make that server have dissimilar resources available for serving out in comparison with another of said tier servers.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising altering a resource content-server directory in said director server so as to reflect what servable resource is available on what resource server.

37. A method of increasing the number of different resources servable out from a web or network tier having a tier in accordance with claim 33, comprising adding an additional resource server to said tier, said additional resource server having additional resources not previously servable by said tier.

38. A method of increasing the number of different resources servable out from a web or network tier having a tier in accordance with claim 34, comprising adding an additional resource server to said tier, said additional resource server having additional resources not previously servable by said tier, and ensuring that said demand director is aware of said additional resource server and is aware of what additional resources are servable out from said additional resource server.

58. A tier of resource serving servers according to claim 33 which comprises a web tier.

39. A server farm or local area network comprising a plurality of networked resource servers having dissimilar resource content, and a demand director, said demand director being (a) aware of what resources are potentially available on which of said resource servers, and (b) arranged for determining current capacity of each of said resource servers to serve out each of said resources that they are capable of serving out, said demand director being adapted to allocate a request for a specific resource to a resource server that it selects using its knowledge of what servers, and their capacity to serve out said requested resource.

40. A demand director for use in a server farm or local area network of resource servers, said demand director having information associating specific resources available for serving out from specific resource servers, and being adapted to ascertain the capability of said resource servers to serve out their potentially servable resources, and being adapted to allocate a demand for a specific resource to a selected resource server using said information and said capability.

41. A demand director for use in a server farm or local area network of resource servers having resources that are potentially servable-out, said demand director being arranged for ascertaining the capability of said resource servers to serve out their potentially servable-out resources and using a knowledge of the capability of said resource servers to serve out a specific resource for determining to which resource server a request for said specific resource is to be directed.

42. A server farm or local area network comprising a plurality of content servers capable of serving out content of a particular kind stored upon them, and a demand manager adapted to allocate a request for specific content to an appropriate content server for serving said request, said content servers having dissimilar servable content of said particular kind stored upon themselves and said demand manager having mapping source for mapping specific content with specific content servers such that said demand manager is arranged to use said mapping source to receive a request for specific content and to allocate said request to an appropriate content server having said specific content upon it.

43. A server farm or local area network comprising a plurality of content servers capable of serving out content of a particular kind, and a content server monitor adapted to monitor capacity of said content servers to serve out specific resources, said content server monitor being adapted to allocate a request for requested specific content to a content server chosen by said content server monitor using a knowledge of said capacity of each of said content servers to serve out said requested specific content.

44. A metropolitan area video serving network comprising a plurality of video servers having at least some different videos on at least some of said video servers, and a demand director having a location map for correlating the address of which of said video servers has which of said videos available for serving, said demand director being adapted to direct demands for a specific video to an appropriate one of said video servers for serving out said specific said video, said demand director being arranged to use said location map to select said appropriate video server.

46. A metropolitan area video serving network according to claim 44 wherein there are a plurality of buildings each of which has its own said video server of said network.

45. A metropolitan area video serving network comprising a plurality of video servers having videos available for serving out, and a video server monitor and demand director adapted to establish the capacity of said video servers to serve out additional videos, beyond their current activity, and to direct a request for a specific video to a video server that said video server monitor and demand director has established has said particular video and is capable of serving out said video satisfactorily.

47. A method of satisfying a demand made of a server farm or local area on a network for a farm or network resource, farm or network having a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource thereon, and a second resource server having a second, different, resource thereon;

said director server being aware of what resources are held on said first and second resource servers, the method comprising in response to a request for one of said first and second resources selecting one of said first and second resource servers to serve out said requested resource and directing said request to said selected one of said first and second resource servers, said demand server selecting an appropriate one of said first and second resource servers to receive said request using its knowledge of where the requested resource is located, and further comprising dynamically distributing servable resources between available resource servers dependent upon demand for said resources, and varying the capacity of said resource servers collectively to serve out demand for a particular resource dependent upon the demand for said particular resource.

48. A method of satisfying a demand on a server farm or local area network for a network resource, the farm or network having a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource thereon, and a second resource server having a second resource thereon;

said director server being aware of unused resource-serving capacity of said first resource server and of unused resource-serving capacity of said second resource-server, the method comprising said director server responding to a request for a requested resource which is present on both said first resource server and said second resource server by selecting a selected one of said first and second resource servers to be the resource server that serves said requested resource, said director server selecting said selected one of said resource servers by using a knowledge of whether or not said first and second resource servers have unused resource-serving capacity capable of serving said requested resource, and further comprising dynamically distributing servable resources between available resource servers dependent upon demand for said resources, and varying the capacity of said resource servers collectively to serve out demand for a particular resource dependent upon the demand for said particular resource.

49. A method of sharing the demand for resources between a plurality of networked resource servers of a sever farm or local area network, dissimilar resource content being on at least some different resource servers having a knowledge of what resource is available for serving out from which of said networked resources servers having a knowledge of said resource servers'"'"' current capacity to satisfy a request for resources that they are capable of serving, the method comprising allocating a request for a requested resource to a selected resource server chosen with the knowledge that it has said requested resource available for serving and that it has the capacity to serve out said requested resource satisfactorily, and dynamically distributing servable resources between available resource servers dependent upon demand for said resources, and varying the capacity of said resource servers collectively to serve out demand for a particular resource dependent upon the demand for said particular resource.

51. A computer readable memory device encoded with a data structure for managing networked resources held on a plurality of resource servers connected to a network, the resource servers being arranged to have a plurality of server programs running thereupon;

in respect to a change in network traffic the data structure having entries, each entry including;

a network address associated with a resource that is servable out; and

resource server-utilisation information or statistics.

52. A device according to claim 51 wherein said utilisation statistics are associated with network traffic through input-output devices associated with the resource servers.

53. A method of making available computer network resources to users of a network having a plurality of resource servers capable of serving out a resource of a common kind included as a server farm or local area network, the method comprising monitoring the demand on said farm or local area network for a particular resource of said common kind automatically by using a computer, and modifying overall capacity of said server farm or local area network to serve out said particular resource automatically in response to monitored or predicted demand.

54. A storage device storing a data structure for managing the automatic transfer of data between a server program of a server farm or local area network and a further server program of the server farm or local area network in response to a change in traffic on the farm or local area network, said data structure being arranged to manage the distribution of the data over said server program and said further server program, said data structure having entries, each entry including:

a locator associated with said server program;

an identifier associated with at least a portion of said data; and

traffic statistics associated with network traffic to said server program.

55. A storage device according to claim 54 wherein said statistics in said data structure entries include statistics relating to any one, or combination, of the following:

level of usage of data, access patterns, access times, outgoing bit rates, accessed locations.

56. A storage device storing software for controlling allocation of a request for a specific resource on a server farm or local area network of resource servers to a selected resource server, the software comprising a director adapted to direct said request to said selected resource server, said director being adapted to receive a map input derived from a resource locator map adapted to provide network addresses at which specific resources are available for serving out, and said director being adapted to use said input to select an appropriate resource server that has said specific resource available on it for serving out and to direct said request to said appropriate resource server.

57. A memory storing software for controlling allocation of a request for a specific resource on a server farm or local area network of resource servers to a selected resource server, said software comprising a director adapted to direct said request to said selected resource server, said director being adapted to receive a capacity input derived from an evaluation of capacities of each of said resource servers to serve out said specific resource, and said director being adapted to select said selected resource server using said capacity input to establish that said selected resource server has capacity to serve out said requested specific resource.

61. A method of satisfying a demand on a network for a network resource, the network having a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource thereon, and a second resource server having a second, different, resource thereon;

said director server being aware of what resources are held on said first and second resource servers, the method comprising upon receipt of a request for one of said first and second resources selecting one of said first and second resource servers to serve out said requested resource and directing said request to said selected one of said first and second resource servers, said demand server selecting an appropriate one of said first and second resource servers to receive said request using its knowledge of where the requested resource is located, and wherein said first and second resources comprise resource data that is in a resource data memory of said first and second resource servers, serving out the response data by the first and second servers, and prior to directing a request for resources to selected one of said resource serves said demand director determining whether said resource server has running on it an available for use appropriate resource serving application software capable of serving out the demanded resource, as well as determining that available for use appropriate resource data is available to said selected server, and wherein in order to increase the capacity of a specific resource server to be able to serve out additional resource of a specific kind making an assessment as to whether said specific server has (i) resource data available to it for said specific resource;

(ii) resource searching application data appropriate for said specific resource running upon it to enable it to serve out said specific resource;

(iii) said application software installed on it but not running;

(iv) application installation software installed able to install and run said application software; and

wherein whichever of said resource data, application software, application installation software, or command to run installed application software or to install and run application software from installed application installation software, is necessary to cause said server to have the capability of serving out additional specific resource is transmitted to said specific server to have the capability of serving out additional specific resource is transmitted to said specific server, the choice of (i) to (iv) is transmitted to said specific server hereby influenced by whichever (i) to (iv) includes the transmission of the smallest amount of data consistent with the desired result of enabling said specific server to be capable of serving out additional specific resource.

71. A demand director server capable of performing the method of claim 61 and which is capable of performing or causing to be performed at least one of the operations:

(i) copying resource from one resource server to another;

(ii) copying resource within a resource server so as to make said resource more available for serving;

(iii) deleting resource from a resource server and/or replacing it with different resource;

(iv) bring up or down resource-serving application software on a resource server;

(v) copying resource-serving application software within a resource server or from one resource server to another;

(vi) activating resource-serving application installation software in a resource server;

(vii) copying resource serving application installing software in a resource server.

86. The server of claim 71 wherein the server is arranged to perform at least two of operations (i) to (iii).

87. The server of claim 71 wherein the server is arranged to perform all of operations (i) to (vii).

62. A method of satisfying a demand on a network for a network resource, the network including a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource thereon, and a second resource server having a second resource thereon;

said director server being aware of unused resource-serving capacity of said first resource server and of unused resource-serving capacity of said second resource-server, the method comprising said director server responding to a request for a requested resource which is present on both said first resource server and said second resource server by selecting a selected one of said first and second resource servers to be the resource server that serves said requested resource, said director server selecting said selected one of said resource servers using knowledge of whether or not said first and second resource servers have unused resource-serving capacity capable of serving said requested resource, and wherein said first and second resources have resource data that is in a resource data memory of said first and second resource servers, the first and second servers serving out the resource data in the resource data memory, and wherein prior to directing a request for resources to a selected one of said resource servers said demand director determining whether said resource server has running on it an available for use appropriate resource serving application software capable of serving out the demanded resource, as well as determining that available for use appropriate resource data is available to said selected server, and wherein in order to increase the capacity of a specific resource server to be able to serve out additional resource of a specific kind an assessment is made as to whether said specific server has (i) resource data available to it for said specific resource;

(ii) resource searching application data appropriate for said specific resource running upon it to enable it to serve out said specific resource;

(iii) said application software installed on it but not running;

(iv) application installation software installed able to install and run said application software; and

wherein whichever of said resource data, application software, application installation software, or command to run installed application software or to install and run application software from installed application installation software, is necessary to cause said server to have the capability of serving out additional specific resource is transmitted to said specific server to have the capability of serving out additional specific resource is transmitted to said specific server, the choice of (i) to (iv) is transmitted to said specific server thereby influenced by whichever (i) to (iv) includes the transmission of the smallest amount of data consistent with the desired result of enabling said specific server to be capable of serving out additional specific resource.

63. A method of supplying a rich media resource of a specific kind in a network of resource servers having resource data in memory servable out by an appropriate one of a plurality of resource-serving application software receiving on said servers, a selected said resource data being capable of being served out in different ways by different ones of said application software to satisfy different protocol/format requirements of different client demands for said selected resource, the method comprising running on a specific resource server selected to serve out specific resource data in a specific protocol/format associated application software adapted to serve out said resource data in the required protocol/format;

and the method further comprising directing requests for specific resource to be applied in particular protocol/format to a resource server which is assessed to have appropriate resource data available for serving and an appropriate application software available for running to serve out said appropriate resource data in the required protocol/format, the application software used being tailored to how the rich media resource is to be delivered.

64. A method of supplying a plurality of rich media resources of different trends in a network of resource servers having a plurality of different resource data in memory servable out by an appropriate one of a plurality of resource-serving application software receiving on said servers a selected one of said plurality of resource data being capable of being served out in different ways by different ones of said application software to satisfy different protocol/format requirements of different client demands for different selected resources, the method comprising running on a specific resource server selected to serve out a selected specific resource data of a specific kind in a specific protocol/format associated application software adapted to serve out said selected resource data in the required protocol/format;

and the method further comprising directing requests for specific resource of a selected kind to be applied in particular protocol/format to a resource server which is assessed to appropriate said selected resource data of a selected kind available for serving and an appropriate application software available for running to serve out said appropriate selected resource data in the required protocol/format for resource of that selected kind, the application software used being tailored to how the selected kind of rich media resource is to be delivered.

65. A method of satisfying a demand on a network for a network resource, the network having a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource thereon, and a second resource server having a second, different, resource thereon;

said director server being aware of what resources are held on said first and second resource servers, the method comprising responding to a request for one of said first and second resources by selecting one of said first and second resource servers to serve out said requested resource and directing said request to said selected one of said first and second resource servers, said demand server selecting an appropriate one of said first and second resource servers to receive said request using its knowledge of where the requested resource is located and wherein said first and second resources comprise resource data that is in a resource data memory of said first and second resource servers, serving out the resource data in the memory from the first and second servers, and wherein prior to directing a request for resources to selected one of said resource serves said demand director determines whether said resource server has running on it an available for use appropriate resource serving application software capable of serving out the demanded resource, as well as determining that available for use appropriate resource data is available to said selected server, and wherein in order to increase the capacity of a specific resource server to be able to serve out additional resource of a specific kind an assessment is made as to whether said specific server has (i) resource data available to it for said specific resource;

(ii) resource searching application data appropriate for said specific resource running upon it to enable it to serve out said specific resource;

(iii) said application software installed on it but not running;

(iv) application installation software installed able to install and run said application software; and

wherein whichever of said resource data, application software, application installation software, or command to run installed application software or to install and run application software from installed application installation software, is necessary to cause said server to have the capability of serving out additional specific resource is transmitted to said specific server to have the capability of serving out additional specific resource is transmitted to said specific server, the choice of (i) to (iv) is transmitted to said specific server thereby influenced by whichever (i) to (iv) includes the transmission of the smallest amount of data consistent with the desired result of enabling said specific server to be capable of serving out additional specific resource, and wherein said rich media resource comprises video and wherein said plurality of application software comprises a plurality of different protocol/formats of video serving software.

66. A method of satisfying a demand on a network for a network resource, the network having a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource thereon, and a second resource server having a second, different, resource thereon;

said director server being aware of what resources are held on said first and second resource servers, the method comprising responding to a request for one of said first and second resources by selecting one of said first and second resource servers to serve out said requested resource and directing said request to said selected one of said first and second resource servers, said demand server selecting an appropriate one of said first and second resource servers to receive said request using its knowledge of where the requested resource is located and wherein said first and second resources comprise resource data that is in a resource data memory of said first and second resource servers, serving out the resource data in the memory from the first and second servers, and wherein prior to directing a request for resources to selected one of said resource serves said demand director determines whether said resource server has running on it an available for use appropriate resource serving application software capable of serving out the demanded resource, as well as determining that available for use appropriate resource data is available to said selected server, and wherein in order to increase the capacity of a specific resource server to be able to serve out additional resource of a specific kind an assessment is made as to whether said specific server has (i) resource data available to it for said specific resource;

(ii) resource searching application data appropriate for said specific resource running upon it to enable it to serve out said specific resource;

(iii) said application software installed on it but not running;

(iv) application installation software installed able to install and run said application software; and

wherein whichever of said resource data, application software, application installation software, or command to run installed application software or to install and run application software from installed application installation software, is necessary to cause said server to have the capability of serving out additional specific resource is transmitted to said specific server to have the capability of serving out additional specific resource is transmitted to said specific server, the choice of (i) to (iv) is transmitted to said specific server thereby influenced by whichever (i) to (iv) includes the transmission of the smallest amount of data consistent with the desired result of enabling said specific server to be capable of serving out additional specific resource, and wherein said rich media resource comprises video and wherein said plurality of application software comprises a plurality of different protocol/formats of video serving software and wherein said method further comprising creating additional capacity to serve out resource by copying application software, or application-installing software either from a said resource server onto another said resource server, or within a single said server, and having said demand director be aware that said copied application software or application-installing software exists and its location.

67. A method according to claim 66 further comprising the step of deleting, stopping running of, or uninstalling, application software from a selected resource server, thereby freeing-up resource server capabilities for use in running other application software.

68. A server network comprising a demand director server, a first resource server having first resource data thereon and first resource serving application software thereon, and a second resource server having second resource data thereon and second resource serving application software thereon;

said demand director server being adapted to be aware of unused resource-serving capacity for each resource data and each appropriate software of said first resource server and of said second resource server, and said director server being capable, upon receipt of a demand for a requested resource that is present on both said first and said second resource servers, of selecting a selected one of said first or second resource servers to serve out said requested resource and causing said selected one of said first or second resource servers to serve out said requested resource, said demand director being adapted to use knowledge of said unused resource-serving capacities of said application software and availability of appropriate resource data for said selected resource of said first and second resource servers when selecting which resource server is to be said selected resource server and serve out said selected resource.

69. A server network according to claim 68 wherein said first resource server and said director server comprise the same server.

70. A server network according to claim 68 wherein said demand director server is adapted to perform or initiate the performance of

(i) copying of application software or application-installing software from a resource server to another resource server;

or

(ii) deletion or uninstalling of resource application software or application-installing software or copying of application software or application-installing software within a single server, from a resource server and/or replacement of said resource application software or application-installation software with a different application software or application-installing software;

or

(iii) both activity (i) and activity (ii).

72. A network comprising a plurality of networked resource servers each having different resource content and each having different resource-serving application software, and a demand director, said demand director being aware of what resource content and what application software is potentially available on which of said resource servers, and being capable of determining current capacity of each of said resource servers to serve out each of said resources that they, taking into account the availability of both resource content on the server in question and the availability of application software on the server in question capable of serving out the resource content are capable of serving out/to be served out in a specific way, said demand director being adapted to allocate a request for a specific resource to be served out in a specific way to a selected resource server that it is arranged to select using its knowledge of how both the resource content and the application software available on each server, and the capacity of each server, to serve out said requested resource in the requested specific way.

73. A demand director for use in a network of resource servers, said demand director comprising a memory storing information associating specific resources available for serving out from specific resource servers, the demand director being adapted to ascertain the unused capability of resource-serving application software present on said servers to serve out their potentially servable resources, and being adapted to allocate a demand for a specific resource to a selected resource server using said information and said used application software capability.

74. A network comprising a plurality of content servers capable of serving out content of a particular kind by using a selected one of content-serving application software each tailored to be suitable for serving out content of different kinds and a content server monitor adapted to monitor capacity of said content servers to serve out specific resources, by evaluating the level of available capacity for future use application software that is tailored for the specifically requested resource that is running or could be brought up to run on each server, and said content server monitor being adapted to allocate a request for requested specific content to a content server chosen by said content server monitor means using a knowledge of said available capacity of the appropriate application software of each of said content servers to serve out said requested specific content.

75. A method of satisfying a demand on a network for a network resource, the network having a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource thereon, and a second resource server having a second, different, resource thereon;

said director server being aware of what resources are held on said first and second resource servers, the method comprising responding to a request for one of said first and second resources by selecting one of said first and second resource servers to serve out said requested resource and directing said request to said selected one of said first and second resource servers, said demand server selecting an appropriate one of said first and second resource servers to receive said request using its knowledge of where the requested resource is located, and further comprising dynamically distributing at least one of resource-serving application software and resource-serving application installation software between available resource servers dependent upon demand for said resources and upon whether or not said servers already have such software available for future use, and varying the capacity of said resource servers collectively to serve out demand for a particular resource dependent upon the demand for said particular resource.

76. A method of satisfying a demand on a network for a network resource, the network including a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource thereon, and a second resource server having a second, different, resource thereon;

said director server being aware of what resources are held on said first and second resource servers, the method comprising responding to a request for one of said first and second resources by selecting one of said first and second resource servers to serve out said requested resource and directing said request to said selected one of said first and second resource servers, said demand server selecting an appropriate one of said first and second resource servers to receive said request using its knowledge of where the requested resource is located; and

wherein the requested selected resource server serves up a reply to said request in such a way that said reply appears to a requestor who made said request to be coming from said demand director.

77. A method of satisfying a demand on a network for a network resource, the network including a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource thereon, and a second resource server having a second resource thereon;

said director server being aware of unused resource-serving capacity of said first resource server and of unused resource-serving capacity of said second resource-server, the method comprising the director server responding to a request for a requested resource which is present on both said first resource server and said second resource server by selecting a selected one of said first and second resource servers to be the resource server that serves said requested resource, said director server selecting said selected one of said resource servers using a knowledge of whether or not said first and second resource servers have unused resource-serving capacity capable of serving said requested resource; and

wherein the requested selected resource server serves up a reply to said request in such a way that said reply appears to a requestor who made said request to be coming from said demand director.

78. A server network comprising a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource on it, and a second resource server having a second resource on it, different from said first resource, said director server being aware of where said first and second resources are located, and being arranged for responding to a request for a selected one of said first or second resource to be served out of said network by directing said request to whichever said resource server is determined to have said requested resource;

and wherein said resource servers are adapted to serve out the requested resource by including an address in the resource served out that is not their own address and withholding their own address from a requesting client server.

79. A server network comprising a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource thereon, and a second resource server having a second resource thereon;

said demand director server being adapted to be aware of unused resource-serving capacity of said first resource server and of said second resource server, and said director server being arranged for responding to a demand for a requested resource that is present on both said first and said second resource servers by selecting a selected one of said first or second resource servers to serve out said requested resource and causing said selected one of said first or second resource servers to serve out said requested resource, said demand director being adapted to use a knowledge of said unused resource-serving capacities for said selected resource of said first and second resource servers when selecting which resource server is to be said selected resource server and serve out said selected resource; and

wherein each of said resource servers is adapted to serve out requested resource by including an address in the resource served out that is not its own specific address.

88. The network of claim 79 wherein the resource servers are adapted to serve out the address of the demand director, and withhold their own address from a requesting client server.

80. A method of satisfying a demand on a local area network for a network resource, the network including a demand director server, a first resource server having a first resource thereon, and a second resource server having a second, different, resource thereon;

said director server being aware of what resources are held on said first and second resource servers, the method comprising responding to a request for one of said first and second resources by selecting one of said first and second resource servers to serve out said requested resource and directing said request to said selected one of said first and second resource servers, said demand server selecting an appropriate one of said first and second resource servers to receive said request using its knowledge of where the requested resource is located, and wherein said demand director server is capable of communicating with an additional resource server that previously was not making its resources available for serving requests received by said demand director server, and arranging for said additional resource server to make its resources available for serving requests received by said demand director server.

81. A demand director server adapted for use with a plurality of resource-serving resource servers having resources distributed between them, said demand director being arranged for monitoring and managing distribution of resources across said resource servers, and mediating requests for resources to be served out by said resource servers so as to direct a request for resource-serving to a chosen resource server chosen by said demand director using a knowledge of which resource servers are capable of serving out the requested resource;

and wherein information relating to both telecommunications availability and resource server processing availability is a factor in determining which resource servers are capable of serving out said requested resource.

82. A method of supplying from a video farm a plurality of video resources of different kinds in a video farm of video servers, each video server having a plurality of different video resource data in memory servable out by an appropriate one of a plurality of video-serving application software capable of running on said servers, a selected one of said plurality of video resource data being capable of being served out in different ways by a different one of said video-serving application softwares to satisfy different protocol/format requirements of different client demands for different selected video resources, the method comprising running on a specific farm video server selected to serve out selected specific video resource data of a specific kind in a specific video protocol/format associated video-serving application software adapted to serve out said selected video resource data in the required protocol/format;

and the method further comprising directing requests for specific video resource of a selected kind to be supplied in a particular protocol/format to a farm video resource server which is assessed to have appropriate said selected video resource data of a selected kind available for serving, and an appropriate video-serving application software available for running to serve out said appropriate selected resource data in the required protocol/format for resource of that selected kind, the video-serving application software used to serve out said video resource being tailored to how the selected kind of video resource is to be supplied; and

serving said video resource out from said selected farm video server to a client requester external of said farm, said video resource being served out by said selected video server in a manner such that said video resource appears to said client requestor to come from the same video farm address irrespective of which specific video farm server actually served out said video resource.