A hardware automated IO path, comprising a message transport unit for transporting an IO request to a local memory via a DMA operation and determining a LMID for associating with a request descriptor of the IO request; a fastpath engine for validating the request descriptor and creating a fastpath descriptor based on the request descriptor; a data access module for performing an IO operation based on the fastpath descriptor and posting a completion message into the fastpath completion queue upon a successful completion of the IO operation. The fastpath engine is further configured for: receiving the completion message, releasing the IO request stored in the local memory, and providing a reply message based on the completion message. The message transport unit is further configured for providing the reply message in response to the IO request.