Patent ID: 8762480

Claim:
A client comprising: an application execution unit configured to execute at least one application; and a client storage manager configured to determine, when a file access request is received from the application, whether to process the file access request as a local file access request to access a local storage of the client or as a cloud file access request to access a cloud storage connected through the Internet, configured to combine a list comprising files stored in the cloud storage with a list comprising files stored in the local storage, and provide the result of the combination to the application execution unit, and when the file access request is a file write request, the client storage manager is configured to provide access to the local storage when the local storage has sufficient spaces; and a brokerage unit configured to select at least one cloud storage to process the cloud file access request from among cloud storages connected through the network when the client storage manager determines to process the file access request as the cloud file access request for access to the cloud storage, and configured to select the at least one cloud storage based on storage usage cost and performance with respect to the client.