Systems and methods for handling I/O requests from a host system to a storage system. A system includes an I/O module for processing I/O requests from a host system, a virtualized storage element, and a communication medium coupling the I/O module to the virtualized storage elements. The virtualized storage element includes a mapping table for translating virtual storage locations into physical storage locations and a plurality of physical storage locations. The virtualized storage element generates base virtual addresses using the mapping table to communicate the base virtual addresses to the I/O module. The I/O module generates specific virtual addresses using the base virtual addresses and using information derived from the I/O requests. The I/O module uses the specific virtual addresses in communication with the virtualized storage element to identify the physical storage locations in the virtualized storage element.