Patent ID: 7730042

Claim:
A computer readable medium including data structures used for storing data, wherein the data structures comprise: a plurality of data structures, wherein each data structure indicates a plurality of attributes and at least one function of a storage resource to store data, wherein each defined data structure is configured to provide requirements to determine a storage resource to store data, and wherein each defined data structure is configured to provide the storage resource with requirements and functions that invoke at least one of hardware and software to perform for storing the data; and policies enabled to associate data characteristics of the data to data structures by enabling operations to be performed, the operations comprising: determining attributes corresponding to data characteristics of data; determining one of the data structures indicating the determined attributes; and using the functions indicated by the determined data structure to store the data in a manner that satisfies the attributes and requirements defined by the determined data structure, wherein the functions defined in the determined data structure are used to store the data in a manner that implements the attributes and requirements defined by the determined data structure.