Dynamic routing of I/O requests in a multi-tier storage environment

A computer readable medium storing instruction for routing service requests in a storage system, the instructions comprising functionality to:

• obtain a service request associated with the storage system;
• obtain a first plurality of values describing a current state of a first storage tier of the storage system;
• calculate a first existing utility of the first storage tier based on the first plurality of variables;
• calculate a second existing utility of a second storage tier of the storage system;
• predict a second plurality of values describing a predicted state of the first storage tier after handling the service request;
• determine a first future utility of the first storage tier based on the second plurality of values;
• determine a second future utility of the second storage tier after handling the service request;
• calculate a first difference between the first future utility and the first existing utility;
• calculate a second difference between the second future utility and the second existing utility;
• calculate a third difference between the second difference and the first difference;
• and
• route the service request to the first storage tier for handling based on the third difference, wherein the first difference exceeds the second difference.

A storage system for routing service requests comprising:

• a first storage tier;
• a second storage tier;
• a predictive architecture configured to:
• obtain a service request associated with the storage system,
• obtain a first plurality of values describing a current state of the first storage tier in the storage system,
• calculate a first existing utility of the first storage tier based on the first plurality of variables,
• calculate a second existing utility of the second storage tier in the storage system;
• predict a second plurality of values describing a predicted state of the first storage tier after handling the service request,
• determine a first future utility of the first storage tier based on the second plurality of values,
• determine a second future utility of the second storage tier after handling the service request,
• calculate a first difference between the first future utility and the first existing utility,
• calculate a second difference between the second future utility and the second existing utility, and
• calculate a third difference between the second difference and the first difference;
• and
• a service request router configured to:
• route the service request to the first storage tier for handling based on the third difference, wherein the first difference exceeds the second difference.