A data storage infrastructure is disclosed for a communication network that produces a plurality of data flows of network data. The data storage infrastructure comprises a data storage systems and a storage management system. The data storage systems store the network data using a plurality of data storage service classes, wherein different data storage systems provide different data storage service classes, and wherein the different data storage service classes have different service class values for a plurality of data storage service variables. The storage management system processes characteristics for the data flows to assign data flow values to the data storage service variables for the data flows, compares the data flow values to the service class values, and assigns individual data flows to individual data storage systems based on the comparison of the data flow values to the service class values.