1. A method for dispersed memory storage comprises: receiving data for storage; determining storage metadata regarding storage requirements of the data; determining memory device capabilities of a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory; identifying memory devices of the DSN memory based on the memory device capabilities and the storage metadata to produce identified memory devices; encoding the data into a plurality of data slices in accordance with an error coding dispersal storage function, wherein the encoding includes: determining operational parameters of the error coding dispersal storage function based on the storage metadata, which further includes: determining a first pillar width corresponding to an estimated time between retrievals requirement component of the storage metadata; and determining a second pillar width corresponding to a storage reliability requirement component of the storage metadata, wherein the second pillar width is greater than the first pillar width, wherein the operational parameters includes at least one of: a pillar width; a read threshold; an error coding algorithm; an encryption algorithm; a slicing parameter; a compression algorithm; an integrity check method; a caching settings; and a parallelism settings; and storing the plurality of data slices in the identified memory devices.