Patent ID: 8370583

Claim:
A network memory system comprising: a source-site appliance comprising a first processor and a first memory device, and configured to be coupled to a source-site computer via a source-site local area network; and a destination-site appliance comprising a second processor and a second memory device, and configured to be coupled to a destination-site computer via a destination-site local area network, the source-site computer in communication with the destination-site computer via a wide area network; wherein the source-site appliance is configured to identify locally accessible data of the destination-site appliance, to intercept transmitted data sent from the source-site computer and directed to the destination-site computer, to perform a determination of whether a portion of the transmitted data corresponds to the locally accessible data of the destination-site appliance, to generate an instruction based on the determination, and to send the instruction to the destination-site appliance over the wide area network; and wherein the destination-site appliance is configured to receive the instruction from the source-site appliance over the wide area network, to process the instruction to obtain the transmitted data locally if the transmitted data corresponds to the locally accessible data of the destination-site appliance, and to transfer the transmitted data to the destination-site computer.