Patent ID: 8156230

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: one or more external network interfaces that are configured for coupling to one or more networks for receiving and sending packet flows; one or more processors; one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing an input/output networking stack that is shared with two or more operating systems hosted by two or more remote hosts, wherein the input/output networking stack comprises one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause: receiving, at a plurality of internal interfaces, requests for data transfers from two or more input/output networking stacks that are respectively configured on the two or more remote hosts, wherein the plurality of internal interfaces comprises a network interface, a block storage interface, and a file system interface; wherein the block storage interface mediates calls from the two or more operating systems; and permitting the data transfers between the plurality of internal interfaces and at least one external network interface by preventing the two or more input/output networking stacks on the two or more remote hosts from performing the data transfers and performing the data transfers on behalf of the two or more input/output networking stacks on the two or more remote hosts.