Methods, systems, devices and appliances relating to virtualized application-layer space for data processing in data storage systems

A data storage device for implementing application-specific data processing of stored client data in a distributed data storage system, the data storage component comprising:

• at least one data storage resource;
• a processor;
• and
• a communications interface for network communication with at least one of the following:
• one or more clients and other data storage devices;
• wherein the data storage device maintains at least a portion of client data in a data object store, said client data being stored in said data object store in accordance with a data object store file system;
• and
• wherein the data storage device is configured to instantiate thereon a virtualized processing unit, the virtualized processing unit configured to implement application-specific data processing of client data in the data object store, said client data object store accessible by said virtualized processing unit in accordance with an application-specific data storage access protocol, wherein client data requests to the data object store can be processed by the data object store file system during application-specific data processing.

A method of integrating a data object store file system in a data storage system with an application-specific data access protocol, the application-specific data access protocol being implemented by an application-specific process in a virtualized processing unit in the data storage system, the data storage system comprising a plurality of data storage components, the method comprising:

• receiving data requests sent in accordance with the application-specific data access protocol;
• determining locations in the plurality of data storage components for data responsive to said data requests;
• selecting for each data request a candidate location from least-loaded of said plurality data storage component;
• and
• associating said data requests with respective candidate locations for responding to data requests associated with the application-specific protocol.