1. A method for managing the transfer of electronic data in a storage system, the method comprising: receiving a monitor index having a plurality of entries identifying data interactions made by at least one application to a plurality of data objects on first and second storage devices, the entries in the monitor index being populated by a journaling application; updating, based on said monitor index entries, metadata stored in a metabase; evaluating a selected criteria for transferring at least one data object from the first storage device to the second storage device, said evaluating comprising accessing the metadata stored in the metabase; and identifying a first data object, of the plurality of data objects, that satisfies the selected criteria.