Patent ID: 8286015

Claim:
A processing unit with instructions for managing a power consumption of a storage system, wherein processing of the instructions by the processing unit causes the processing unit to perform steps comprising: activating at least one storage device of the storage system from a reduced power consuming state in response to a determination that a first parameter has crossed a first threshold, thereby indicating an increase in storage activity of the storage system, or in response to a pre-set transition time for activating the at least one storage device, the activated at least one storage device having previously comprised data redundant to data of at least one other storage device of the storage system that has remained in an active state while the at least one storage device that is being activated was in the reduced power consuming state; storing data on the activated at least one storage device reflective of changes to data stored on the at least one other storage device since the at least one storage device that is being activated was last placed into the reduced power consuming state, the storing being performed with reference to lifecycle information associated with data stored on either of the at least one other storage device that has remained in the active state or one or more reduced power consuming storage devices of the storage system to which data of the at least one storage device that is being activated was copied before the at least one storage device that is being activated was last placed into the reduced power consuming state; deactivating at least one storage device of the storage system to the reduced power consuming state in response to a determination that a second parameter has crossed a second threshold, thereby indicating a decrease in the storage activity, or in response to a pre-set transition time for deactivating the at least one storage device, the deactivated at least one storage device comprising data redundant to data of at least one other storage device of the storage system that will remain in an active state while the at least one storage device that is deactivated remains in the reduced power consuming state; and copying data from the at least one storage device that is being deactivated, prior to its deactivation, to the one or more reduced power consuming storage devices of the storage system, the one or more reduced power consuming storage devices comprising data from additional storage devices that have also been placed into the reduced power consuming state; wherein the pre-set transition time for activating the at least one storage device and the pre-set transition time for deactivating the at least one storage device were set based on historical empirical information of storage activity derived from the lifecycle information; and wherein further the first threshold is associated with a minimum acceptable user experience of one or more users utilizing the storage system.