A distributed, web-services based storage system. A system may include a
web services interface configured to receive, according to a web services
protocol, a given client request for access to a given data object, the
request including a key value corresponding to the object. The system may
also include storage nodes configured to store replicas of the objects,
where each replica is accessible via a respective unique locator value,
and a keymap instance configured to store a respective keymap entry for
each object. For the given object, the respective keymap entry includes
the key value and each locator value corresponding to replicas of the
object. A coordinator may receive the given client request from the web
services interface, responsively access the keymap instance to identify
locator values corresponding to the key value and, for a particular
locator value, retrieve a corresponding replica from a corresponding
storage node.