Abstract: A power consumption threshold is implemented to manage power consumed by a plurality of devices. A power consumption threshold may be selected for a data storage system having multiple drives. Policies may control operation of storage devices such as hard disk drives to ensure the power consumption threshold is not exceeded. The policies may implement procedures for scheduling hard disk drive operations based on disk drive power characteristics, scheduling maintenance tasks, managing device power states, and strategically scheduling device operations based on their current state. The policies may be implemented by a data manager application in communication with multiple tiers of a data storage system.