System and method for managing a non-volatile storage resource as a shared resource in a distributed system

A data storage system comprising:

• a plurality of hosts;
• a storage management system, operatively coupled to the plurality of hosts;
• the storage management system storing instructions which, when executed, cause:
• receiving, from at least one host of the plurality of hosts, requests to write data to a relatively high-performance storage device;
• in response to the requests, writing data to the relatively high-performance storage device;
• according to an allocation policy, indicating to a particular host, of the plurality of hosts, that it should limit its use of the relatively high-performance storage device;
• after indicating to the particular host that it should limit its use of the relatively high-performance storage device:
• receiving, from the particular host, an indication of data to discard from the relatively high-performance storage device;
• and
• discarding the data that corresponds to the indication from the relatively high-performance storage device;
• wherein receiving the indication of data to discard includes receiving a request by the particular host to delete a subset of the written data in the relatively high-performance storage device;
• and
• wherein discarding the data that corresponds to the indication includes discarding the subset of the written data in the relatively high-performance storage device.