Abstract: Selected server operations that affect objects in a distributed computing system can be off-loaded from servers at which the objects are stored to other servers without the requirement of vertical partitioning of the affected objects and without off-loading entire affected objects. A client environment process that requests an operation on an object is notified of a task server to which selected off-load operations should be sent. The client preferably stores the task server identifier and thereafter sends such operation request directly to the identified task server. The object metadata information can be stored in the client environment, if desired. The object metadata at the owning repository server is maintained, if affected by the requested operation. A single task server can perform off-loaded functions from several other repository servers at the same node and at other nodes, and in that way reduce the workload of many servers.