Methods and apparatuses for operating a storage system are provided. In one example, a storage system includes a storage server and a virtual storage appliance (VSA) implemented in a virtual machine. The storage server provides access to a first shared namespace of data. The VSA is operatively connected to the storage server system over a network connection and provides access to a second shared namespace of data over the network connection. The second shared namespace is defined by a policy and includes a subset of the first shared namespace. The VSA also replicates data of a third shared namespace of data at the VSA making the third shared namespace available at the VSA when the network connection is unavailable. The third namespace is defined by the policy and includes a subset of the second shared namespace.