1. A method comprising: receiving, at a computing device having memory and a processor, a read directory request associated with a directory including a plurality of files optimized using deduplication; accessing, via a communications interface, a metadata database maintained using a storage device; evaluating timestamps by using the processor to determine whether an entry in the metadata database is valid, wherein if the entry is not valid, a suitcase file is accessed to obtain the metadata needed to respond to the read directory request, and wherein the suitcase file comprises an optimized file that includes a plurality of compressed files.