Data storage system manager and method for managing a data storage system

A data storage system manager comprising:

• one or more servers;
• at least one data collector deployed on at least one of the servers and configured to collect resource utilization information including data storage wear rate of data storage system data storage modules;
• at least one policy engine deployed on at least one of the servers and configured to (i) evaluate the collected information and (ii) initiate changes to a configuration of the data storage system based on data storage wear rate and work load distribution policies;
• and
• at least one configuration manager deployed on at least one the servers and configured to implement the changes initiated by the at least one policy engine to control the data storage wear rate and a skew of the work load distribution within the data storage system.

A method for managing a data storage system, the method comprising:

• at one or more servers,
• collecting resource utilization information including data storage wear rate of data storage system data storage modules and work load distribution within the data storage system;
• evaluating the collected information;
• initiating changes to a configuration of the data storage system based on wear rate and work load distribution policies that specify one of (i) a maximum data storage wear rate that depends on the work load distribution and (ii) a maximum skew for the work load distribution that depends on the data storage wear rate;
• and
• implementing the initiated changes to a configuration of the data storage system to control the data storage wear rate and skew of the work load distribution.