US Patent 11314444 Environment-sensitive distributed data management

A storage controller is implemented for controlling a storage system. The storage controller may be implemented using a distributed computer system and may include components for servicing client data requests based on the characteristics of the distributed computer system, the client, or the data requests. The storage controller is scalable independently of the storage system it controls. All components of the storage controller, as well as the client, may be virtual or hardware-based instances of a distributed computer system.