A data storage system, comprising: two or more distinct storage solutions for storing data objects in the storage system, each storage solution implementing storage technology having distinct characteristics and capabilities, the characteristics and capabilities including one or more of cost, power consumption, capacity, throughput, speed of access, environmental requirements, and reliability metrics; one or more computing devices implementing a storage management module operable to: obtain information about a plurality of data objects; determine a plurality of groupings of the data objects based on a cluster analysis according to two or more dimensions of the obtained information, wherein the two or more dimensions includes two or more selected from the list consisting of: an age of the data objects, an access frequency of the data objects, access patterns of the data objects, types of the data objects, relationships among the data objects, specified priorities for the objects, or metadata for the data objects; determine a particular one of the two or more storage solutions for each of the determined plurality of groupings of data objects by matching the determined groupings to the storage solutions according to the characteristics and capabilities of the storage solutions and the two or more dimensions used by the cluster analysis; and direct storing of the data objects in the plurality of groupings to the respective determined storage solutions. two or more distinct storage solutions for storing data objects in the storage system, each storage solution implementing storage technology having distinct characteristics and capabilities, the characteristics and capabilities including one or more of cost, power consumption, capacity, throughput, speed of access, environmental requirements, and reliability metrics; one or more computing devices implementing a storage management module operable to: obtain information about a plurality of data objects; determine a plurality of groupings of the data objects based on a cluster analysis according to two or more dimensions of the obtained information, wherein the two or more dimensions includes two or more selected from the list consisting of: an age of the data objects, an access frequency of the data objects, access patterns of the data objects, types of the data objects, relationships among the data objects, specified priorities for the objects, or metadata for the data objects; determine a particular one of the two or more storage solutions for each of the determined plurality of groupings of data objects by matching the determined groupings to the storage solutions according to the characteristics and capabilities of the storage solutions and the two or more dimensions used by the cluster analysis; and direct storing of the data objects in the plurality of groupings to the respective determined storage solutions. obtain information about a plurality of data objects; determine a plurality of groupings of the data objects based on a cluster analysis according to two or more dimensions of the obtained information, wherein the two or more dimensions includes two or more selected from the list consisting of: an age of the data objects, an access frequency of the data objects, access patterns of the data objects, types of the data objects, relationships among the data objects, specified priorities for the objects, or metadata for the data objects; determine a particular one of the two or more storage solutions for each of the determined plurality of groupings of data objects by matching the determined groupings to the storage solutions according to the characteristics and capabilities of the storage solutions and the two or more dimensions used by the cluster analysis; and direct storing of the data objects in the plurality of groupings to the respective determined storage solutions. <EOS>