DISTRIBUTED STORAGE SYSTEM WITH WIDE AREA REPLICATION

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device and a method for evenly share process load of an I/O command by a whole storage array in a distributed storage system having a wide area memory allocation capability. SOLUTION: The device and method with a virtual engine connectable to a remote device over a network for passing access commands between the remote device and a storage space. A plurality of intelligent storage elements (ISEs) 108-1, 1080-2 replicate data of a block size sufficient for processing an access command which is not yet processed from a first ISE to a second ISE independently of access commands being simultaneously passed between the virtual engine 200 and the first ISE. COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT