Patent ID: 8886845

Claim:
A method comprising: associating, via one or more computing devices, a first input/output (I/O) scheduling queue with a first process accessing a storage network, wherein the first I/O scheduling queue is configured to receive a plurality of first process I/O requests; associating, via the one or more computing devices, a second I/O scheduling queue with a second process accessing the storage network, wherein the second I/O scheduling queue is distinct from the first I/O scheduling queue, wherein the second I/O scheduling queue is configured to receive a plurality of second process I/O requests that are distinct from the plurality of first process I/O requests; regulating, via the one or more computing devices, a rate at which the first I/O scheduling queue provides the plurality of first process I/O requests to the storage network; and combining, via the one or more computing devices, two or more of the plurality of first process I/O requests to form a combined first process I/O request, wherein one or more of: a number of necessary read operations associated with the first scheduling queue is reduced and a number of necessary write operations associated with the first scheduling queue is reduced.