Data prefetching for large data systems

The present invention is notably directed to a computer-implemented method of accessing data by an application. The method comprises detecting an application that is accessing an initial file stored in a storage system; fetching an application model of the detected application, the application model comprising an association between access patterns of the detected application when accessing first files with first metadata information of the said first files; identifying one or more second files stored in the storage system, the identified one or more second files having second metadata information that are similar to the first metadata information; and prefetching the identified one or more second files.