colocação dinâmica de dados de réplica

The claimed subject matter relates to systems and/or methodologies that facilitate distributed storage of data. A distributed file system can be implemented on storage nodes such that the system places multiple copies of data (e.g., replicas) on a variety of disparate storage nodes to guarantee availability of the data and minimize loss of the data. Storage nodes are dynamically evaluated to identify respective characteristics. In one example, the characteristics can include availability of a storage node, capacity of a storage node, data storage cost associated with a storage node, data transfer costs associated with a storage node, locality of a storage node, network topology, or user preferences associated with a storage node. The characteristics can be employed to generate optimal placements decisions.