PERSISTENT STORAGE IMPLEMENTATIONS FOR SESSION DATA WITHIN A MULTI-TIERED ENTERPRISE NETWORK

A system is described in which similar session objects are managed within session domains. In addition, in one embodiment, a persistence storage interface is employed which maps each session domain to a table within a relational database or other persistent storage implementation. For example, one embodiment of the invention is a system comprising: an object-oriented application server generating a plurality of session objects in response to client requests, the session objects storing session data defining a state of interaction with each of a respective plurality of clients; a hierarchy of session object storage units, the session object storage units configured to store session objects having one or more related characteristics, the session manager to group the session objects within the session object storage units based on the one or more related characteristics of each of the session objects; and a persistence management layer to provide a persistent representation of the hierarchy of session object storage units, the persistent representation of the session object storage units mapping each session storage object unit and each individual session object within each session object storage unit to different persistent data structures within a persistent storage device.