1. A method for providing a plurality of client applications access to data in a distributed file system including a plurality of storage elements coupled to a plurality of read servers and a write server, comprising: distinguishing between read requests and write requests from the client applications; transmitting read requests from the client applications to the plurality of read servers; transmitting write requests from the client applications to the write server; reading file data by the read servers and returning the file data to the client applications in response to read requests; and writing data by the write server in response to write requests from the client applications.