Apparatus and method for packet based storage virtualization

1. A method for data virtualization, comprising the steps of:

receiving communications;

separating a command communication from a data communication;

parallel processing the command communication and the data communication;

generating at least one command based on the command communication;

generating virtual data according to the at least one command;

accumulating the virtual data; and

forming a virtual I/O from the accumulated virtual data.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the step of generating the virtual data includes generating the virtual data prior to receiving all data associated with the data communication.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the step of generating the virtual data includes generating virtual data prior to receiving an entire I/O.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the step of separating the command communication from the data communication includes separating a command protocol data unit (PDU) from a data PDU.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising the step of:

converting the virtual data to an alternate protocol prior to communicating the virtual data to compensate for a change in protocol.

6. A method for data virtualization, comprising the steps of:

receiving communications;

determining if the communications include a command communication;

forwarding the command communication for command processing;

generating a command;

determining if the communications includes at least a portion of a data communication;

forwarding the at least the portion of the data communication for data processing;

generating virtualized data based on the at least the portion of the data communication according to the command prior to receiving all data associated with the data communication;

accumulating the virtualized data; and

forming a virtual I/O from the accumulated virtualized data.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the step of generating the virtualized data according to the command includes generating the virtualized data prior to receiving an entire I/O.

8. The method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the steps of generating the command and the step of generating virtualized data are performed separately.

9. The method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the step of generating the command and the step of generating virtualized data are performed in parallel.

10. The method as claimed in claim 6 , further comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of communications; and

distributing over a network the steps of:

determining which of the plurality of communications are command communications;

forwarding the command communications for command processing;

generating commands;

determining which of the plurality of communications are data communications;

forwarding the data communications for data processing; and

for each data communication of the data communications generating virtualized data according to at least one of the commands prior to receiving all data associated with the communication.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the step of distributing includes utilizing a plurality of virtualization apparatuses distributed through the network; and

synchronizing at least the step of generating virtualized data.