Nodes in the soft state layer are organized in a logical ring overlay
as nodes of the fully decentralized type. For example, a user
request can be transparently redirected during a crash or overload
to a different service instance that has up-to-date session
context, without requiring log-in again. Loss of connectivity to
nodes prompts other nodes to take over. BASE databases can recover
quickly and consistently since they usually reside on standard
commodity hardware, making them affordable for most businesses.
Services using DDS (Data Distribution Service) may keep soft
state, but they rely on the hash table to manage all persistent states.
DDS library contains only soft state, including metadata about
the cluster’s current configuration and partitioning of data in the
distributed hash tables across the BRICKS (Building Resources for
Integrated Cultural Knowledge Services, an open-source software
framework for the management of distributed digital assets).