1. A management method for an apparatus for use in a cluster system comprising: managing content data as a data object by associating metadata with the content data, wherein the metadata includes policy data, the policy data comprising one or more policies to be applied to the content data; storing the data object; and enforcing one or more policies corresponding to the policy data in the metadata of the data object while the data object is stored in the memory; wherein policy enforcement for the data object is carried out independent of policy enforcement for at least one other data object; wherein the managing, storing and enforcing steps are carried out using a hardware element associated with the apparatus.