Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and software for enhancing application update processes. In an implementation, a delta file is received in a data center that hosts various instances of a service application. The delta file represents a difference between a new version of the service application and a previous version of the service application. An instance of the service application installed in the data center is removed from service temporarily in order to update it from the previous version of the service application to the new version of the service application. Upon initiating and completing an update of the instance of the service application to the new version of the service application using at least the delta file, the instance is returned to service.

Abstract: Technologies are described herein for implementing a windowed mid-tier data cache. A request is received for a data page comprising a set of data rows from a result set of a query in a database management system (“DBMS”). A determination is made whether the requested data rows exist in the mid-tier cache. If the requested rows exist in the cache, then the set of data rows is retrieved from the cache and the requested data page is returned. If the requested rows do not exist in the cache, a data chunk comprising a number of data rows from the result set larger than and encompassing the requested rows is requested from the DBMS. Upon receiving the data chunk, the data chunk is stored in the mid-tier cache, and the set of data rows are retrieved from the cache and the requested data page is returned.