Patent ID: 7975112

Claim:
A method for controlling a switch apparatus connected to a first storage apparatus, a second storage apparatus, and a host, the switch apparatus managing a virtual storage area maintained by at least one of the first storage apparatus and second storage apparatus, the host capable of accessing the virtual storage area by transmitting a command for identifying a subarea of the virtual storage area to be accessed, the second storage apparatus being capable of allowing an access faster than the first storage apparatus does, the method comprising: receiving a command for accessing at least one of the subareas from the host; determining which of the first and second storage apparatuses maintains the subarea to be accessed; accessing the subarea corresponding to the command; detecting a frequency of access to each of the subareas; and moving either of data stored in the subareas maintained in the first storage apparatus and having higher frequency of access than data stored in the subareas maintained in the second storage apparatus into the subareas maintained in the second storage apparatus, and data stored in the subareas maintained in the second storage apparatus and having lower frequency of access than data stored in the subareas maintained in the first storage apparatus into the subareas maintained in the first storage apparatus.