Patent ID: 7010493

Claim:
An apparatus for managing storage access, comprising: a disk system including multiple storage devices capable of being coupled to a host system via interface ports and a data communication channel; time components comprising time zone information; a disk system manager operative to control accessibility by the host system to the multiple storage devices based upon a service level agreement and the time component, the service level agreement specifying billing rates based upon the time components, the disk system manager capable of being coupled to the host system via a control communication channel that is different from the data communication channel; a storage access service system operative to grant time-based host system access to said multiple storage devices and to compute invoice amounts based upon the time component and the service level agreement, and wherein said storage access service system determines charges for user access by comparing said preset schedule to a billing rate schedule and thereupon computing a cost of said preset schedule; and means for users to agree to access at least one of said storage devices during a preset schedule, and wherein said storage access service system determines charges for user access service based upon said preset schedule.