Patent ID: 6801960
Filing Date: 2004-10-05
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A storage system for storing data for at least one host computer, said system comprising:a plurality of disk drives for storing and supplying said data; a switch having a plurality of input and output ports, said switch being connected between said plurality of disk drives and said at least one host computer for at least connecting one of said input ports on which said data was received to one of said output ports; an aggregator connected to said switch for at least managing operation of said plurality of disk drives; and, operation coordinating logic operatively coupled to coordinate operation of said plurality of disk drives, said switch, and said aggregator in a manor to control flow of certain of said data between said at least one host computer and said plurality of disk drives to be through said switch and not through said aggregator and in a manner which does not change the operation of said at least one said host computers, the operation coordinating logic, when conveying data between a host computer and a disk drive, being configured to: selectively (i) direct data exchanged between the host computer and the disk drive through the aggregator to improve security for the data, and (ii) divert the data exchanged between the host computer and the disk drive so that the data does not proceed through the aggregator to reduce latency.