Patent ID: 8484256

Claim:
A method of operating a transformation system operatively coupled to at least one client and at least one storage device and capable of transforming a logical data object (LO) to a transformed logical data object (TLO) for storage in the at least one storage device operable with at least one storage protocol, comprising: intercepting, by the transformation system, an open LO request to a requested LO and addressed by the at least one client to the at least one storage device; responsive to the intercepted open LO request, obtaining an identifier (ID) in a header of a TLO corresponding to the requested LO and stored in the at least one storage device, thereby using the obtained ID to associate the TLO and the requested LO; determining if the transformation system handles at least one open LO characterized by an ID with a same value as the obtained ID; opening the requested LO if the at least one open LO is not found; determining if the at least one open LO is substantially similar to the requested LO if the at least one open LO is found, wherein the at least one open LO and the requested LO are substantially similar when the absolute value of the difference between a last-modify-time of the TLO and a last-modify-time of the at least one open LO is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold; generating an instance corresponding to the intercepted open LO request if the requested LO and the at least one open LO are determined substantially similar, wherein the instance is generated by de-transforming at least a portion of the TLO; and associating the instance to the obtained ID; and intercepting a first write request address to the obtained ID, and if the first write request meets an ID update criterion, performing at least one of: suspending processing of the first write request, generating a new ID, and updating the header of the TLO corresponding to the requested LO with the new ID, upon successfully updating the header, re-associating the generated instance to the new ID, and processing the suspended first write request.