Method and apparatus for dispersed storage memory device utilization

A computer comprises:

• a dispersal memory interface;
• and
• a processing module operable to:
• obtain data for storage;
• determine storage metadata regarding storage requirements of the data;
• determine memory device capabilities of a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory;
• identify memory devices of the DSN memory based on the memory device capabilities and the storage metadata to produce identified memory devices;
• encode the data into a plurality of data slices in accordance with an error coding dispersal function, wherein the encoding includes:
• determining operational parameters of the error coding dispersal storage function based on the storage metadata, which further includes:
• determining a first pillar width corresponding to an estimated time between retrievals requirement component of the storage metadata;
• and
• determining a second pillar width corresponding to a storage reliability requirement component of the storage metadata, wherein the second pillar width is greater than the first pillar width, wherein the operational parameters includes at least one of:
• a pillar width;
• a read threshold;
• an error coding algorithm;
• an encryption algorithm;
• a slicing parameter;
• a compression algorithm;
• an integrity check method;
• a caching settings;
• and
• a parallelism settings;
• and
• output, via the dispersal memory interface, the plurality of data slices to the identified memory devices for storage therein.