System and method for distributed management of data storage

A method of data storage management comprising the acts of:

• providing at least one network-accessible storage device capable of storing data;
• implementing a plurality of storage management process instances;
• communicating storage messages between the storage management process instances;
• and
• storing data to the at least one network-accessible device under control of at least one instance of the storage management processes.

A data storage management system comprising:

• a plurality of network-accessible storage devices capable of storing data;
• a plurality of network-accessible devices configured to implement storage management processes;
• a communication system enabling the storage management processes to communicate with each other;
• wherein the storage management processes comprise processes for storing data to the at least one network-accessible storage device;
• and
• wherein the at least one network-accessible device capable of storing data comprises a parity record holding parity information for at least one other storage node.

A method of data storage management comprising the acts of:

• providing a plurality of network-accessible storage devices each capable of storing data;
• implementing a plurality of storage management process instances;
• communicating storage messages between the storage management process instances;
• and
• identifying one or more storage devices associated with the data to be stored;
• determining parity information for the data to be stored;
• and
• storing the unit of data and/or parity data across the two or more storage devices.

A method of data storage management comprising the acts of :

• providing a plurality of network accessible storage devices capable of storing data;
• implementing a plurality of storage management process instances;
• communicating storage messages between the plurality of storage management processes;
• storing data to the plurality of network accessible storage devices under control of the plurality of storage management processes;
• and
• adding and subtracting data storage capacity to and from the data storage under control of the plurality of storage management processes without affecting accessibility of the data storage.

A method of data storage management comprising the acts of:

• providing a plurality of network-accessible storage devices each capable of storing data;
• implementing a plurality of storage management process instances;
• and
• communicating storage messages between the storage management process instances, wherein any of the storage management process instances is capable of storage allocation and deallocation across the plurality of storage nodes;