Patent ID: 8307359

Claim:
A storage area network embedded in an electronic device housing one or more processors, the one or more processors executing program code comprising: program code for producing a first virtual machine on the electronic device, the first virtual machine providing a virtual storage initiator that issues storage requests to read or to write data; and program code for producing a second virtual machine on the electronic device, the second virtual machine providing a virtual storage target that responds to storage requests, wherein the virtual storage target is exposed to an external storage area network (SAN) fabric in order to enable storage initiators in the external SAN fabric to issue storage requests to the virtual storage target, and wherein the second virtual machine has its own storage stack comprised of layered software configured to perform, in accordance with a storage protocol, storage communications in response to the storage requests issued by the storage initiators in the SAN fabric and in response to the storage requests issued by the virtual storage initiator.