Logical view and access to physical storage in modular data and storage management system

A computer storage system having a processor that supports operation of at least one software application in order to store selected data in the computer storage system, at least one storage media for storing the selected data, a plurality of storage policies, each having particular storage guidelines, that are available to determine how data is to be stored in the computer storage system, and a storage control that interacts with the at least one software application of the processor to determine which of the plurality of storage policies to use for storage of the selected data and that stores the selected data according to the selected storage policy. In one embodiment, the storage control of the computer storage system migrates the selected data from one of the at least one storage media to another of the at least one storage media according to the selected storage policy.