Computer system and process for transferring multiple high bandwidth streams of data between multiple storage units and multiple applications in a scalable and reliable manner

A file system for a computer, enabling the computer to access remote independent storage units over a computer network in response to a request, from an application executed on the computer, to read data stored in one or more files on the storage units, wherein a file includes segments of the data and redundancy information for each segment, wherein each segment has an identifier, and wherein, for each file, the segments and the redundancy information for each segment are distributed among the plurality of storage units, the file system comprising:

• means, responsive to the request from the application to read data from a file, for determining, for each segment of the data requested by the application the storage unit on which the segment is stored;
• means for maintaining information, locally accessible by the file system of the computer, associating the identifier of each segment of the file with the storage unit on which the segment is stored;
• means, for sending a request, for each segment of the data requested by the application, to the storage unit on which the segment is stored, wherein each request includes the identifier of the segment;
• means for receiving each segment requested from the storage units;
• and
• means for providing the received data to the application.

A file system for a computer, enabling the computer to access remote independent storage units over a computer network in response to a request, from an application executed on the computer, to store data in one or more files on the storage units, wherein a file includes segments of the data and redundancy information for each segment, and wherein, for each file, the segments and the redundancy information for each segment are distributed among the plurality of storage units, the file system comprising:

• means, responsive to the request from the application to store the data in a file, for dividing the data into a plurality of segments, and for associating each segment with an identifier;
• means for distributing each segment, and the redundancy information for each segment, among the plurality of storage units by sending to the storage unit the segment of the data and the identifier of the segment;
• means for maintaining information, locally accessible by the file system of the computer, associating the identifier of each segment of the file with the storage unit on which the segment is stored;
• and
• means for confirming to the application whether the data is stored.