1. A method comprising: encoding, by a processing module of a computing device, a data segment of a data object into a set of encoded data slices; determining, by the processing module, storage requirements of the data object; determining, by the processing module, memory device capabilities of a plurality of distributed storage units based on types of memory devices, wherein at least one of the distributed storage units of the plurality of distributed storage units includes multiple types of memory devices, and wherein a first type of memory device has first memory characteristics and a second type of memory device has second memory characteristics; determining, by the processing module, a storage mode based on one or more of the storage requirements of the data object, the memory device capabilities of a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory, and a type of data, the storage mode including a time phase indicator specifying one or more time intervals for a given set of storage requirements; identifying, by the processing module, a set of distributed storage units of the plurality of distributed storage units that have at least one or more of the multiple types of memory devices based on the storage mode; and sending, by the computing device, at least a write threshold number of encoded data slices of the data segment to the set of distributed storage units for storage in the at least one or more of the multiple types of memory devices in accordance with the storage mode, wherein the write threshold number is greater than a decode threshold number and less than a total number, wherein the decode threshold number corresponds to a minimum number of encoded data slices of the set of encoded data slices that is needed to recover the data segment, wherein the total number corresponds to a number of encoded data slices in the set of encoded data slices.