Selectively Staging Data Writes in a Storage System

A storage system comprising:

• at least one persistent storage device providing persistent data storage;
• at least one non-volatile storage device configured to provide staging for pending writes to the at least one persistent storage device;
• at least one storage system controller configured to perform a process comprising:
• receiving data write requests;
• determining, based on one or more criteria and for a first subset of the data write requests, to write first data associated with the first subset of the data write requests to the at least one non-volatile storage device;
• determining, based on the one or more criteria and for a second subset of the data write requests, to:
• bypass writing second data associated with the second subset of the data write requests to the at least one non-volatile storage device, and
• write the second data to the at least one persistent storage device.

A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

• receiving data write requests;
• determining, based on one or more criteria and for a first subset of the data write requests, to write first data associated with the first subset of the data write requests to at least one non-volatile storage device of a storage system, the at least one non-volatile storage device configured to provide staging for pending writes to at least one persistent storage device of the storage system;
• determining, based on the one or more criteria and for a second subset of the data write requests, to:
• bypass writing second data associated with the second subset of the data write requests to the at least one non-volatile storage device, and
• write the second data to at least one persistent storage device.