A system, method and computer program product that manage storage device
load, including (a) classifying processes that access a storage device as
high priority and low priority; (b) monitoring access activity to the
storage device by the high priority processes; and (c) regulating the
access activity of the low priority processes based on the access
activity of the high priority processes. A counter can be used to monitor
the access activity of the high priority processes, so that a request to
the storage device increases the counter and a response from the storage
device decreases the counter, and access to the storage device for the
low priority processes when the counter is zero. The low priority
processes can be backup processes, security system processes, anti-virus
processes, compression processes, archive systems, and applications that
monitor storage device access.