US Patent 8146073 Updating software while it is running

To avoid extensive time during which servicing of clients' requests is stopped for updating a piece of software or a data structure, various embodiments of the invention update an instance of the piece of software or an instance of the data structure instead of updating the original piece of software or the data structure. This allows the original piece of software or the data structure to service clients' requests without interruption. The updated instance begins to service clients' requests without losing context while the original piece of software or the data structure is terminated from further operation.