Patent ID: 8805949

Claim:
A standalone cache unit comprising: one or more input or output (I/O) ports; a cache memory to store data at the standalone cache unit; a packet processor, at the standalone cache unit, coupled to the cache memory and to the one or more I/O ports, the packet processor to inspect network protocol traffic state parameters associated with a data operation request received from a remote client over one or more networks and received on the I/O ports in order to determine whether the request can be serviced by the standalone cache unit based on the inspected network protocol traffic state parameters; and an adaptive cache control module, at the standalone cache unit, to execute computer-executable instructions in order to perform a data operation corresponding to the request and to automatically control caching operations in the cache memory using (i) a default cache replacement policy, and (ii) a user-specified cache profile that selectively adjusts the default cache replacement policy based on one or more conditions associated with the request.