Provided is a method of coordinating lock requests in a network key-value (NKV) store including one or more NKV clients and one or more NKV targets, the method including receiving, by a first NKV client, a lock request from a client device over a communication interface to lock an object key stored in one or more of the NKV targets, determining, by the first NKV client, one of the NKV targets corresponding to the lock request, transmitting, by the first NKV client, the lock request to the one of the NKV targets over a storage interface, determining, by the one of the NKV targets, a priority of the lock request, and locking, by the one of the NKV targets, the lock request based on the priority.