Patent ID: 7606934

Claim:
A method for routing service requests in a storage system, comprising: obtaining a service request associated with the storage system; obtaining a first plurality of values describing a current state of a first storage tier in the storage system; calculating a first existing utility of the first storage tier based on the first plurality of variables; calculating a second existing utility of a second storage tier in the storage system; predicting a second plurality of values describing a predicted state of the first storage tier after handling the service request; determining a first future utility of the first storage tier based on the second plurality of values; determining a second future utility of the second storage tier after handling the service request; calculating a first difference between the first future utility and the first existing utility; calculating a second difference between the second future utility and the second existing utility; calculating a third difference between the second difference and the first difference; and routing the service request to the first storage tier for handling based on the third difference, wherein the first difference exceeds the second difference.