Non-disruptive storage caching using spliced cache appliances with packet inspection intelligence

A method, system and program are disclosed for accelerating data storage by providing non-disruptive storage caching using spliced cache appliances with packet inspection intelligence. A cache appliance that transparently monitors NFS and CIFS traffic between clients and NAS subsystems and caches files using dynamically adjustable cache policies provides low-latency access and redundancy in responding to both read and write requests for cached files, thereby improving access time to the data stored on the disk-based NAS filer (group).