Patent ID: 8566549

Claim:
A method for managing data among a plurality of storage devices, comprising: collecting raw data access information about data stored on a first storage device of the plurality of storage devices, wherein the raw data access information corresponds to a workload of the first storage device, the workload including read and write accesses of the data stored on the first storage device, and wherein the raw data access information includes a number of the read and write accesses of the workload; characterizing the raw data access information to generate characterized data access information, wherein the characterized data access information contains less information than the raw data access information, and wherein the characterized data access information identifies at least one access characteristic of the data stored on the first storage device, wherein the at least one access characteristic of the data stored on the first storage device includes information concerning at least one of: an access rate of the data on the first storage device or a frequency of use of the data on the first storage device; transmitting the characterized data access information to a second storage device of the plurality of storage devices, wherein the generating and transmitting of the characterized data access information is performed independently from data replication processing between the first storage device and the second storage device; and managing data stored on the second storage device according to the characterized data access information, wherein the data stored on the second storage device corresponds to the data stored on the first storage device, wherein the data stored on the second storage device is present on the second storage device prior to receipt of the characterized data access information by the second storage device, wherein the characterized data access information causes the data stored on the second storage device to be stored in a different storage configuration than a storage configuration prior to receipt of the characterized data access information, wherein the different storage configuration includes storing the data among a plurality of storage tiers of the second storage device, each of the plurality of storage tiers having different data access characteristics, wherein particular data is stored on a particular storage tier based on the characterized data access information.