Patent ID: 6714968
Filing Date: 2004-03-30
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A data storage system comprising:a client computer; a storage server communicatively coupled to the client computer via a global computer network, wherein the storage server allocates a user-assignable remote storage area in response to a request received from the client computer over the global computer network; a plurality of software applications executing on the storage server to provide a plurality of different access interfaces for accessing the remote storage area; an operating system executing on the client computer and including application programming interface (API) routines that communicate with a first one of the access interfaces of the storage server to manage data files within the remote storage area as if the data files were local on the client computer; and a communication software application executing on the client computer to directly communicate with a second one of the access interfaces of the storage server to manage the data files within the remote storage area without invoking the API routines of the operating system executing on the client computer.