Abstract: A common interface and communication methodology are provided for interaction between the components of a storage area network for them to activate “triggers” that cause actions to be taken by the devices to utilize copy service functions to create additional copies of data, and to potentially route load to other resources. The actions can be taken by any of the elements of the storage area network to mitigate the impact of the pending failure. The advantage of this system over current methods is that it can detect both failure and impending failure in any component in the system and use resources in any other component to mitigate the failure. This creates a much more comprehensive recovery strategy and the potential to save more data than in current systems.