StorTrends performs automated data tiering through its Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) software. ILM monitors users' data patterns and migrates data between different performance tiers to achieve the optimal level of performance for specific sets of data.

StorTrends tiering also works at the volume level by automatically tuning users' volumes to receive the required amount of performance. Users can choose to have entire volumes residing on specific performance tiers, or choose to have their individual volumes striped among different performance tiers to maximize capacity of high-performance drives.

In addition to automation at the tier and volume level, StorTrends brings automation to the disk-based level. On a typical spinning disk drive, outside tracks of the disk platter will intrinsically have larger surface area and angular speed than the platter's inner tracks. To take advantage of this variance, StorTrends monitors data at the disk-based level and promotes the disk's most frequently accessed data to the outside (hot) tracks while demoting infrequently accessed data to the inner (cold) tracks.