A method of operating a unified network storage system that supports both object protocols and file protocols, the method comprising: storing a data entity in a network storage system, wherein the data entity includes a file representation and an object representation; receiving a client request to access the data entity, wherein the network storage system accepts both file protocol requests and object protocol requests to access the data entity; if the request is a file protocol request, accessing the file representation of the data entity via the file protocol, wherein the system accesses the file representation of the data entity according to a first set of access characteristics comprising non-atomic file-based update and retrieval, and if the request is an object level request, accessing the object representation of the data entity via the object protocol, wherein the system accesses the object representation of the data entity according to a second set of access characteristics comprising object-based atomic update and retrieval; if the file representation of the data entity has been modified, copying the modified file representation of the data entity to update the object representation of the data entity, wherein the modifications made via the file protocol are accessible by the object protocol; and if the object representation of the data entity has been modified, copying the modified object representation of the data entity to update the file representation of the data entity, wherein modifications made via the object protocol are accessible by the file protocol; wherein the file representation is modified non-atomically and wherein the object representation is modified atomically; the method further comprising: creating a file namespace redirector in a file namespace to point to the file representation; creating an object namespace redirector in an object namespace to point to the object representation; linking the file namespace redirector in the file namespace to the object namespace redirector in the object namespace; and linking the object namespace redirector in the object namespace to the file namespace redirector in the file namespace. storing a data entity in a network storage system, wherein the data entity includes a file representation and an object representation; receiving a client request to access the data entity, wherein the network storage system accepts both file protocol requests and object protocol requests to access the data entity; if the request is a file protocol request, accessing the file representation of the data entity via the file protocol, wherein the system accesses the file representation of the data entity according to a first set of access characteristics comprising non-atomic file-based update and retrieval, and if the request is an object level request, accessing the object representation of the data entity via the object protocol, wherein the system accesses the object representation of the data entity according to a second set of access characteristics comprising object-based atomic update and retrieval; if the file representation of the data entity has been modified, copying the modified file representation of the data entity to update the object representation of the data entity, wherein the modifications made via the file protocol are accessible by the object protocol; and if the object representation of the data entity has been modified, copying the modified object representation of the data entity to update the file representation of the data entity, wherein modifications made via the object protocol are accessible by the file protocol; wherein the file representation is modified non-atomically and wherein the object representation is modified atomically; the method further comprising: creating a file namespace redirector in a file namespace to point to the file representation; creating an object namespace redirector in an object namespace to point to the object representation; linking the file namespace redirector in the file namespace to the object namespace redirector in the object namespace; and linking the object namespace redirector in the object namespace to the file namespace redirector in the file namespace. creating a file namespace redirector in a file namespace to point to the file representation; creating an object namespace redirector in an object namespace to point to the object representation; linking the file namespace redirector in the file namespace to the object namespace redirector in the object namespace; and linking the object namespace redirector in the object namespace to the file namespace redirector in the file namespace.