US Patent 8738681 Hierarchical cooperative storage services

A method, system, and program product for enabling a virtual storage layer to offer array based extent services, the virtual storage layer communicatively coupled to one or more storage mediums, the method comprising determining for the one or more storage mediums, the services offered by the storage mediums, and enabling extent based services at the virtual service layer by combining the services offered by the one or more storage mediums to create new services and by providing a set of services at the virtual service layer.