the invention is directed to techniques for accessing a data storage system having both a filesystem and directory system . in one arrangement , an apparatus has memory that stores an application , and a controller coupled to the memory . the controller operates in accordance with the application stored in the memory to access a data storage system . in particular , the application configures the controller to obtain an access instruction which identifies a portion of the data storage system , and determine , in response to the obtained access instruction , whether the identified portion of the data storage system is a file of the filesystem or a directory entry of the directory system . the application further configures the controller to perform a file access operation to access the identified portion as a file when the identified portion is determined to be a file of the filesystem , and a directory entry access operation to access the identified portion as a directory entry when the identified portion is determined to be a directory entry of the directory system . since the apparatus is capable of determining whether the access instruction identifies a file of a filesystem or a directory entry of a directory system , application developers need not be concerned about the availability of any particular vendor - specific apis . rather , the application developers can simply use an access instruction with a common syntax and expression such as that for accessing a file of unix filesystem , read , write , etc . ), and let the apparatus determine how to handle such instructions .