Patent ID: 8745102

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a third device, a host read request for a first file, wherein the host read request is generated by a first device, and the host read request is configured to access a file on the first device; accessing a plurality of mappings stored on the third device, wherein the accessing identifies a first mapping of the plurality of mappings, and the first mapping identifies the first file on a second device; accessing the first file, wherein the accessing the first file is performed using the first mapping, and the accessing the first file comprises communicating with the second device to read the first file, wherein the communicating with the second device comprises generating a second read request based on the host read request; sending the second read request to the second device; and receiving a response from the second device, wherein the response comprises data indicated by the host read request; and returning the first file to the first device, wherein the returning is performed in response to the receiving of the host read request.