1. A method for detecting, associating, and establishing an optimal storage virtualization protocol between a host system and a given virtualized storage device on a network, comprising: enabling a host system for network connectivity and analysis, where the host system is automatically configured as a protocol client or as both a protocol server and a protocol client, depending on a presence or absence of an existing protocol server; enabling a utility configured to execute a network probing algorithm on a network; and enabling a software configuration function responsive to the utility and configured to assign one of a plurality of storage virtualization protocols as an optimal storage virtualization protocol for subsequent data transactions between the host system and a virtualized storage device, wherein the assigned storage virtualization protocol is assigned as a function of an OSI layer associated with the plurality of storage virtualization protocols, where the plurality of storage virtualization protocols include iSCSI, HyperSCSI, and SCSI over i-PCI, wherein when there is a direct connect via i-PCI to an expansion chassis on the network that includes a SCSI adapter and a hard drive, the host system is configured to utilize the direct connect rather than HyperSCSI.