A system and method for data lifecycle management. In one embodiment, data is migrated from a source physical volume at a primary storage system to a target physical volume at an external storage system. The data from the source physical volume is copied to the target physical volume. When a request is received at the primary storage system from a server to access the data in the target physical volume, the server is added as an owner of the target physical volume, sent location information of the target physical volume, and allowed to access the target physical volume directly without passing through the primary storage system. The volume for migration may be determined based on not having been accessed for a specified period or having been specified by a user or an application to be migrated. Extents, objects and files may also be migrated.