A storage device includes an application container containing one or more applications; a polymorphic storage device (PSD) kernel configured to receive a plurality of packets including data, messages, and commands from a host computer, and route the plurality of packets to an application in the application container based on a command included in the plurality of packets; and a PSD interface layer configured to provide an interface between the one or more applications and the PSD kernel. The storage device can be transformed from a first type of storage device to a second type of storage device according to the control command received via the PSD control interface.