Class of service analysis for data flows in a data storage infrastructure for a communication network

A data storage infrastructure for a communication network that produces a plurality of data flows of network data, the data storage infrastructure comprising:

• a plurality of data storage systems configured to store the network data using a plurality of data storage service classes, wherein different ones of the data storage systems provide different ones of the data storage service classes, and wherein the different ones of the data storage service classes have different service class values for a plurality of data storage service variables;
• and
• a storage management system configured to process characteristics for the data flows to assign data flow values to the data storage service variables for the data flows wherein the data flow values comprise monetary values, compare the data flow values to the service class values, and to assign individual ones of the data flows to individual ones of the of the data storage systems based on the comparison of the data flow values to the service class values.