In the present invention, a management server manages, as virtual data areas,
the physical data areas that storage devices have. Moreover, the management server
includes a unit. Based on an access request received from each server, the unit
issues, to the corresponding storage devices, an instruction of reading out the
data onto caches from disks. Also, each storage device, which has received the
instruction, includes each unit for reading out the data onto each cache in accordance
with the instruction.