Patent ID: 8549253

Claim:
A system, comprising: a storage switch having a plurality of ports, wherein one or more storage ports of the plurality of ports is configured to operatively connect to one or more storage units serving one or more storage devices storing information, wherein one or more control ports of the plurality of ports is configured to operatively connect to a storage system executing a storage operating system, and wherein one or more data ports of the plurality of ports is configured to operatively connect to a client; a processor configured to extract a logical unit number (LUN) identifier and block number associated with a data access request from the client; the storage switch configured to store virtualization mappings that translate the data access request to locations of the information served by a storage unit connected to the storage switch, the storage switch further configured to store the data access request in a first data port of the one or more data ports while the extracted LUN identifier and the block number are utilized to access the virtualization mappings to select a storage port of the one or more storage ports; and the storage switch further configured to transfer the data access request from the first data port to the selected storage port to service the data access request.