Abstract: A framework for distributed state management across servers is described, in particular for enterprise systems. The framework provides an architecture including a distributed state management adapter for servers and their applications to access a distributed state management server. The distributed state management adapter is coupled to applications through an application program interface. The distributed state management server is couple to the distributed state management adapters through a standardized service provider interface. This framework enables interoperability among applications using state data. The distributed state management system may provide or support various functionalities, including state synchronization, secure data access, event notification, state management control, transaction based state management, and persistent state back-up.