Peer to peer connection authorizer

A peer to peer connection authorizer is disclosed. The connection authorizer involves three different entities: a system authorizer mechanism, a client connection manager, and a server connection manager. The system authorizer resides on the main or primary CPU while the client and server connection managers reside on individual IOPs. To obtain information required by a user and/or an application program, the client connection manager issues a request to the system authorizer. When the system authorizer receives the request, it first verifies that the client device is who it claims to be. If the system authorizer determines that the client device should be allowed to access the requested information, it then sends a token to the server device and a copy of the same token to the client device. Upon receipt of the token copy from the system authorizer, the client connection manager packages the token copy into a message that it sends to the server device. When the server connection manager receives the message from the client device, it compares the token copy to the token it received from the system authorizer. If the tokens match, the server connection manager responds to the client device and the connection is established.