1. A method for execution by one or more processing modules of one or more computing devices of a dispersed storage network (DSN), the method comprises: receiving, by storage units of the DSN, a set of encoded data slices for storage, wherein a data segment of data is dispersed storage error encoded into the set of encoded data slices; determining, by a first storage unit of the storage units, whether to store a first encoded data slice of the set of encoded data slices as the first encoded data slice or as a first set of encoded data sub-slices; when the first encoded data slice is to be stored as the first set of encoded data sub-slices, encoding, by the first storage unit, the first encoded data slice in accordance with a first dispersed storage error encoding function to produce the first set of encoded data sub-slices; determining, by a second storage unit of the storage units, whether to store a second encoded data slice of the set of encoded data slices as the second encoded data slice or as a second set of encoded data sub-slices; and when the second encoded data slice is to be stored as the second set of encoded data sub-slices, encoding, by the second storage unit, the second encoded data slice in accordance with a second dispersed storage error encoding function to produce the second set of encoded data sub-slices.