Patent ID: 8924511

Claim:
A cloud connector for interfacing between a network attached storage device and a cloud storage system (CSS), comprising: a unified cloud protocol module for communicating with the network attached storage (NAS) device using a cloud transport protocol, wherein the unified cloud protocol module is further configured to translate the cloud transport protocol into different proprietary protocols utilized by a plurality of cloud storage providers to enable synchronization of data files and execution of file-system operations with the plurality of cloud storage providers; a plurality of cloud protocol drivers for interfacing with at least one of a plurality of storage devices and the plurality of cloud storage providers, wherein the plurality of storage devices and the plurality of cloud storage providers are part of the CSS; a permissions-and-quotas enforcement module for enforcing access control to data blocks stored in the plurality of storage devices and the plurality of cloud storage providers of the CSS, wherein the access to data blocks is enforced and restricted according to a list of access control rules; and a service entitlement database for determining specific cloud storage services that a user is entitled to, wherein the service entitlement database is further configured to store a service level agreement (SLA) corresponding to the user, wherein the SLA defines at least one of storage quotas and bandwidth quotas guaranteed to the user.