A system and method for provided a switch system (100) having a first configurable set of processor elements (102) to process storage resource connection requests (104), a second configurable set of processor elements capable of communications with the first configurable set of processor elements (102) to receive, from the first configurable set of processor elements, storage connection requests representative of client requests, and to route the requests to at least one of the storage elements (104), and a configurable switching fabric (106) interconnected between the first and second sets of processor elements (102), for receiving at least a first storage connection request (104) from one of the first set of processor elements (102), determining an appropriate one of the second set of processors for processing the storage connection request (104), automatically configuring the storage connection request in accordance with a protocol utilized by the selected one of the second set of processors, and forwarding the storage connection request to the selected one of the second set of processors for routing to at least one of the storage elements.