Patent ID: 8041940

Claim:
A method to offload encryption processing in a storage area network (SAN) system, comprising: receiving an I/O transaction for encryption processing at a host in the SAN system; determining if the host has a bandwidth level to perform the encryption processing on the I/O transaction by comparing a first processor utilization value at the host with a first threshold value; performing the encryption processing of the I/O transaction at the host responsive to the host having the bandwidth level to perform the encryption processing; offloading the encryption processing of the I/O transaction to a processor if the host does not have a bandwidth level to perform the encryption processing if the first processor utilization value is greater than the first threshold value; determining if the processor has a bandwidth level to perform the encryption processing on the I/O transaction by comparing a second processor utilization value at the processor with a second threshold value; performing the encryption processing of the I/O transaction at the processor responsive to the processor having the bandwidth level to perform the encryption processing if the second processor utilization value is less than the second threshold value; and performing encryption processing of the I/O transaction at the host if the processor does not have a bandwidth level to perform the encryption processing.