Patent ID: 7856541

Claim:
A computerized data storage system comprising: a. a plurality of storage control modules, each comprising a cache; b. a plurality of data preservation modules operable to store data associated with at least one host computer, wherein each of the plurality of data preservation modules is associated with one of the plurality of storage control modules; c. an interconnect interconnecting the plurality of storage control modules; and d. a storage management module operable to receive a request from a client host computer or an administrator and to provide to the client host computer, in response to the received request, a storage volume allocated in one of the plurality of data preservation modules and at least a portion of the cache of one of the plurality of storage control modules, wherein the storage volume and the portion of the cache are provided based on latency information associated with the storage control modules; wherein the received request comprises volume size requirement information and performance requirement information comprising identification of one of a plurality of rules corresponding to the performance requirement information; wherein the storage volume and the portion of the cache are provided in accordance with the identified rule; wherein each of the plurality of rules comprises minimum amount of cache requirement, a storage control module sharing requirement and a data preservation module sharing requirement.