Scalable, high performance and highly available distributed storage system for Internet content

A content storage and delivery method operated by a content delivery network (CDN) service provider on behalf of participating content providers, where the participating content providers are distinct from the CDN service provider, comprising:

• establishing and maintaining a plurality of CDN content servers;
• positioning a plurality of CDN storage sites in distinct Internet-accessible locations, each CDN storage site receiving and storing first and second content objects published by respective first and second participating content providers distinct from one another and from the CDN service provider;
• for each content object received in the CDN storage site, associating, as a soft-link, a virtual filename for the content object with an on-disk filename identifying a physical location in the CDN storage site system at which the first content object is actually stored;
• and
• exposing the virtual filename to the participating content provider while maintaining the on-disk filename masked from the participating content provider.