Patent ID: 8849758

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for storing data, comprising: under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions, storing one or more copies of one or more data sets in a plurality of data stores, each of the data sets corresponding to a virtual storage volume and at least a particular data set of the one or more data sets having a plurality of copies; receiving a request to provision storage space to a new virtual storage volume; in response to the request, determining whether to reallocate storage space from one or more of the plurality of copies of the particular data set for the new virtual storage volume; in response to a determination to reallocate storage space, identifying one or more expendable copies from the plurality of copies based at least in part on a relative utilization metric of the one or more expendable copies, the utilization metric having been determined with respect to other copies in the plurality of copies, the relative utilization metric being based at least in part on a comparison of a frequency of access of the one or more expendable copies to a frequency of access of the other copies in the plurality of copies; deallocating at least some space allocated to the identified one or more expendable copies; and allocating the deallocated space to the new virtual storage volume.