Dispersed storage unit solicitation method and apparatus

A computing device comprises:

• an interface;
• a memory;
• and
• a processing module operably coupled to the interface and the memory, wherein the processing module is operable to:
• obtain, via the interface, data for storage in a storage as service network environment, wherein the storage as service network environment includes a plurality of storage units that are hosted by one or more storage as service entities;
• determine storage preferences regarding the data based on at least one of the data and a source of the data;
• determine a set of the plurality of the storage units from storage units within one or more dispersed storage network (DSN) memories based on the storage preferences;
• send, via the interface, a solicitation request to the set of the plurality of the storage units, wherein the solicitation request includes a representation of the storage preferences;
• when at least a minimum number of favorable solicitation responses have been received within a time period, determine a dispersed storage error encoding function based on the favorable solicitation responses, the storage preferences, and available encoding schemes;
• encode the data based on the determined dispersed storage error encoding function to produce a plurality of sets of encoded data slices;
• and
• output for storage, via the interface, the plurality of sets of encoded data slices to at least some of the storage units providing the favorable solicitation responses.

A computer readable storage memory comprises:

• a first storage section that stores operational instructions that, when executed by one or more processing modules, causes the one or more processing modules to:
• obtain data for storage in a storage as service network environment, wherein the storage as service network environment includes a plurality of storage units that are hosted by one or more storage as service entities;
• a second storage section that stores operational instructions that, when executed by the one or more processing modules, causes the one or more processing modules to:
• determine storage preferences regarding the data based on at least one of the data and a source of the data;
• a third storage section that stores operational instructions that, when executed by the one or more processing modules, causes the one or more processing modules to:
• determine a set of the plurality of storage units from storage units within one or more dispersed storage network (DSN) memories based on the storage preferences;
• send a solicitation request to the set of the plurality of storage units, wherein the solicitation request includes a representation of the storage preferences;
• when at least a minimum number of favorable solicitation responses have been received within a time period, determine a dispersed storage error encoding function based on the favorable solicitation responses, the storage preferences, and available encoding schemes;
• encode the data based on the determined dispersed storage error encoding function to produce a plurality of sets of encoded data slices;
• and
• output for storage the plurality of sets of encoded data slices to at least some of the storage units providing the favorable solicitation responses.