1. A method comprising: receiving, from a software application that is executing on a server machine, at a storage system that is distinct from the server machine, a single I/O request to retrieve items involved in an operation that targets a plurality of items that reside on a primary storage that is managed by the storage system; wherein the primary storage is persistent storage; wherein the single I/O request specifies storage locations, of the items involved in the operation, on the persistent storage; wherein an intermediate cache, managed by the storage system, is logically positioned between local memory of the software application and the primary storage; wherein the plurality of items targeted by the operation includes a first set of items and a second set of items; and in response to the single I/O request, the storage system performing steps of: retrieving the first set of items from the primary storage; and retrieving the second set of items from the intermediate cache.