Virtualized distributed content access system

A virtualized content access (VCA) system, comprising:

• a central service administrator (CSA), which is configured to enable a user to register a VCA account with the CSA;
• a plurality of private infrastructure content providers (PICPs), wherein each PICP includes a passive content server (PCS) and at least one operating system (O/S) account repository containing content, wherein at least two of the PICPs are disparate from one another in that the at least two PICPs are located in different Internet domains and utilize different operating systems;
• wherein the CSA and the PCSs are configured to (i) enable a registered user to select at least two O/S account repositories from at least two disparate PICPs for inclusion in a VCA collection associated with the registered user, and (ii) establish, for each O/S account repository selected for inclusion in the registered user's VCA collection, a persistent connection between the CSA and the PCS corresponding to each selected O/S account repository;
• wherein the CSA maintains a relational database associating registered users' selected O/S account repositories and the persistent connections corresponding thereto;
• wherein the registered user can utilize a communication device (CD) to connect to the CSA over the Internet and, upon VCA account authentication, receive a list of the O/S account repositories in the registered user's VCA collection and request content therefrom, and wherein, in response to the request, the CSA identifies the PCS and the persistent connection associated with each O/S account repository containing the requested content and signals the identified PCS over the identified persistent connection to initiate transfer of the requested content from the identified PCS to the registered user's CD.