Patent ID: 8756373

Claim:
A storage module comprising: one or more ports configured to couple the storage module to one or more computing elements via a network; and one or more maps; wherein the storage module is configured to: receive a first storage request from one of the computing elements, the first storage request including a logical block address; determine a communication type of the first storage request and process the first storage request according to the communication type, the communication type being selected from a group consisting of Fibre Channel, SAS, TCP/IP, SCSI, iSCSI, and SCSI over Infiniband; select a virtual extent based on the logical block address; determine a virtual storage volume based on the virtual extent and the one or more maps; and forward the first storage request to a physical storage device storing the virtual storage volume using a preassigned path between the storage module and the physical storage device; wherein each of the one or more maps balances distribution of storage requests by handling a predetermined number of storage requests.