Patent ID: 8037016

Claim:
A system for transcoding data in a virtual machine (VM) environment, comprising: a storage medium having data stored thereon in a first VM data format, said data having a common descriptor associated therewith, said common descriptor comprising information describing said first VM data format; a storage controller coupled to a data storage device comprising said storage medium, said storage controller configured to control the transfer of data to and from said data storage device; a VM data format transcoder comprising processing logic configured to: receive a request to provide data in a second VM data format; submit instructions to said storage controller to transfer said data and its said associated common descriptor to said VM data format transcoder; process said associated common descriptor to determine if said first VM data format is the same as said requested second VM data format; transcode said data from said first VM data format to said requested second VM data format if said first VM data format is not the same as said requested second VM data format; provide said data in said requested second VM data format.