Patent ID: 8225002

Claim:
A data storage system for use in a first computer connected to a packet-switched network comprising a plurality of remotely located other computers, wherein each computer connected to the packet-switched network has an operating system, the data storage system comprising: a plurality of storage devices attached to the first computer; a network adapter for transmitting data and control signals over the packet-switched network; a front-end software component located at the first computer in communication with the network adapter and configured to handle at least direct access I/O requests arriving at the network adapter and I/O channel commands, wherein the direct access I/O requests are made by the remotely located other computers, at least two of the remotely located other computers having a different operating system, and each computer connected to the packet-switched network is configured to handle data in a data format corresponding to its respective operating system; an I/O channel adapter configured to provide via an I/O protocol layer, free of network delay, access to data stored on the storage devices; a management software component located at the first computer configured to enable at least one of the remotely located other computers connected to the packet-switched network to access the I/O channel adapter, said management software component including a volume access table containing access mode parameters and data mapping portions of said storage devices to at least one of the remotely located other computers with corresponding operating system, wherein the access mode parameters include a shared access parameter or an exclusive access parameter; a translation software component configured to translate the accessed data into a format accessible by one of the remotely located other computer; a cache memory and a cache manager software component located at the first computer, responsive to said front-end software component, configured to handle data stored in said cache; and a back-end software component located at the first computer, responsive to said management software component, configured to handle direct access read and write operations to said storage devices corresponding to the direct access I/O requests exclusive of the front-end software, thereby separating the read and write operations from network traffic; wherein the data on the first computer is stored in the cache memory, wherein the cache memory comprises a portion of a distributed cache memory stored in the first computer and the remotely located other computers on the network; wherein the computers comprise an off-the shelf hardware and an off-the shelf operating systems; wherein at least some of the remotely located other computers comprise at least one storage device; wherein the management software component employs a file system from the off-the-shelf operating system; and wherein the management software component manages at least some of the storage devices on remotely located other computers as virtual storage devices.