Patent ID: 7454446

Claim:
In a storage environment comprising a plurality of storage devices, a method of identifying a storage device from the plurality of storage devices for storing data, the method comprising: receiving a signal to store a data unit; identifying a set of one or more placement rules configured for the storage environment, each placement rule comprising data-related criteria identifying one or more conditions related to one or more characteristics of the data to be stored and device-related criteria identifying one or more conditions related to one or more storage device characteristics; calculating a data value score (DVS) for each placement rule in the set of placement rules based upon the data-related criteria of the placement rule and characteristics of the data unit; selecting a first placement rule from the set of placement rules based upon the DVSs associated with the set of placement rules; calculating a relative storage value score (RSVS) for each storage device in the plurality of storage devices based upon the device-related criteria of the first placement rule, the characteristics of the data unit, and characteristics of the storage device; and determining a storage device, from the plurality of storage devices, for storing the data unit based upon the set of placement rules and their associated DVSs, the RSVSs calculated for the plurality of storage devices, characteristics of the plurality of storage devices, and characteristics of the data unit to be stored.