US Patent 8001142 Distributed data system with incremental data updates

A system may include a client and a distributed data manager coupled to the client. The distributed data manager may include a data store storing a data object that includes several sub-elements. The client is configured to update a portion of the data object by sending a message to the distributed data manager. The message specifies one of the sub-elements of the data object to be updated and includes a new value of that sub-element but does not include a new value of the entire data object. The distributed data manager is configured to perform updates to the data object in the data store dependent on which of the sub-elements of the data object are specified by the client.