Patent ID: 7113984

Claim:
A method for facilitating operations related to data storage between a first device and at least one data storage unit in a computer network, comprising the steps of: duplicating selected metadata from the at least one data storage unit to the first device, wherein the selected metadata describes a location of data stored on the data storage unit; causing generation of a storage services protocol transaction to access the data stored on the data storage unit and described by the selected metadata, wherein the generation is responsive to the selected metadata duplicated to the first device; encapsulating the storage services protocol transaction into a payload portion of at least one network protocol data unit; processing the at least one network protocol data unit based on a storage services protocol set to facilitate transmission of the at least one network protocol data unit to the at least one data storage unit, wherein the processing is performed at a switch located in the computer network; extracting the storage services protocol transaction from the at least one network protocol data unit; and operating upon the storage services protocol transaction.