1. A method for monitoring transactions related to objects in a storage network, comprising: at a switch device coupled between a client and a storage network, identifying which one or more file systems on the storage network to monitor and which one or more types of transaction requests to monitor; periodically receiving a plurality of received transaction requests each concerning an object in the storage network, the switch device configured to process transaction requests sent by the client; for each received transaction request, determining that the received transaction request is directed to a file system on the storage network that has been identified as being monitored and that a type of the received transaction request has been identified as being monitored and based on such determination, logging the received transaction request according to the type of the received transaction request; periodically processing a plurality of such logged transaction requests to generate accumulation data associated with objects to which the logged transaction requests are directed, the accumulation data describing an access, modification or other use of each object; storing the accumulation data in a records repository; applying a storage network management policy to the objects based on the accumulation data, wherein applying the policy comprises directing queries based on the policy to the records repository; wherein the switch device provides a switch file handle to the client for each object, said switch file handle identifying the object independent of physical location, and the switch device maps the switch file handle to a storage network file handle, the storage network file handle identifying the physical location of the object in the storage network, and wherein each received transaction request sent by the client comprises a selected one of the switch file handles for the object of the received transaction request.