A plurality of access nodes sharing access to data on a storage network implement a directory based cache ownership scheme. One node, designated as a global coordinator, maintains a directory (e.g., table or other data structure) storing information about I/O operations by the access nodes. The other nodes send requests to the global coordinator when an I/O operation is to be performed on identified data. Ownership of that data in the directory is given to the first requesting node. Ownership may transfer to another node if the directory entry is unused or quiescent. The distributed directory-based cache coherency allows for reducing bandwidth requirements between geographically separated access nodes by allowing localized (cached) access to remote data.