Patent attributes
Load balancing technology is used to distribute tasks requested of a data storage network across the connected storage nodes within the data storage network. Conventional load balancing technology is not proactive. Storage nodes within a data storage network may have different performance characteristics and/or current loads created by various demands on the storage nodes and connected servers. The proactive load balancers and corresponding load balancer agents disclosed herein are used to detect these variations in performance characteristics and/or current loads in the storage nodes and connected servers to inform decisions made by the proactive load balancer in distributing incoming access requests across the storage nodes and connected servers.