1. A data storage system comprising: a plurality of storage nodes, each node existing at a physical location and each storage node having associated contexts that define characteristics of each storage node, wherein first contexts including a political context, an economic context, and a geographic context are related to at least the physical location of each storage node and wherein second contexts including a network topological context are related to at least attributes of each storage node; interface mechanisms coupled to each storage node for communicating data storage requests with the storage node, at least one data storage access request including performance criteria that define storage characteristics that are desired for data associated with the data storage access requests; and data storage management processes that select one or more of the storage nodes to serve the at least one data storage access request based at least in part upon the first contexts and the second contexts that satisfy the performance criteria, wherein the first contexts and the second contexts are used to discriminate differences between the plurality of storage nodes and identify the selected one or more storage nodes to serve the at least one data storage access request.