A method to provide a symbolic link based placeholder, wherein the symbolic link represents the placeholder, wherein the symbolic link comprises a path that obeys a format, wherein the path comprises first metadata and an entity identifier, ID, for a target file being represented as the placeholder, and wherein the first metadata is a metadata string that describes a name of the target file, the method comprising: reading, by an operating system of a computing device, the path from the symbolic link; presenting the path of the symbolic link to a lookup call to obtain a vnode, the lookup call being received from a kernel of the operating system at a placeholder virtual file system, VFS,, wherein the placeholder VFS is mounted and implemented as a loadable kernel extension or built in the operating system; upon determining that the path conforms with the format, creating, by the placeholder VFS, the vnode that represents an entity with the entity ID, and second metadata that contains the name of the target file; returning, by the placeholder VFS, the vnode to the kernel; in response to receiving one of a read and a write request on the vnode, transmit a hydration request for the target file to a hydration daemon (514; 723) of the operating system, the hydration daemon performing a hydration process; allowing the one of the read and write operation to be performed on the hydrated target file; and transmit a result of the performed operation to a primary file system of the operating system, wherein the hydration process comprises: determining the path to the target file, which contains the symbolic link; determining a path to a cloud file, wherein determining the path to the cloud file includes downloading the cloud file to a temporary location; deleting the symbolic link; copying the cloud file from the temporary location to the target file; and copying the path to the target file to a buffer to be returned to the kernel of the operating system. reading, by an operating system of a computing device, the path from the symbolic link; presenting the path of the symbolic link to a lookup call to obtain a vnode, the lookup call being received from a kernel of the operating system at a placeholder virtual file system, VFS,, wherein the placeholder VFS is mounted and implemented as a loadable kernel extension or built in the operating system; upon determining that the path conforms with the format, creating, by the placeholder VFS, the vnode that represents an entity with the entity ID, and second metadata that contains the name of the target file; returning, by the placeholder VFS, the vnode to the kernel; in response to receiving one of a read and a write request on the vnode, transmit a hydration request for the target file to a hydration daemon (514; 723) of the operating system, the hydration daemon performing a hydration process; allowing the one of the read and write operation to be performed on the hydrated target file; and transmit a result of the performed operation to a primary file system of the operating system, wherein the hydration process comprises: determining the path to the target file, which contains the symbolic link; determining a path to a cloud file, wherein determining the path to the cloud file includes downloading the cloud file to a temporary location; deleting the symbolic link; copying the cloud file from the temporary location to the target file; and copying the path to the target file to a buffer to be returned to the kernel of the operating system. determining the path to the target file, which contains the symbolic link; determining a path to a cloud file, wherein determining the path to the cloud file includes downloading the cloud file to a temporary location; deleting the symbolic link; copying the cloud file from the temporary location to the target file; and copying the path to the target file to a buffer to be returned to the kernel of the operating system.