Abstract: A power aware data storage system comprises storage configured to store physical data files, the storage comprising several types of storage that are associated with different access times and power consumption; a storage authority coupled with the storage, the storage authority configured to control uploading of files to the storage, and downloading of files from the storage; web services configured to interface the storage authority with end users via the internet and to allow the end users to select the type of storage for each physical file or group of physical files; and a power consumption application configured to compute power consumption information for each physical data file stored in the storage and to report the power consumption information via the web services.