The present techniques prioritize transmission of feature information associated with data copies in data transmission, and selectively transmit the data copies when necessary. As the size of the feature information is small compared with the data copies, and as feature information is transmitted using prioritized messages, delays caused by congestion in the network are reduced. Based on the use of prioritized messages, the present techniques provide solutions for replicating data across data centers when conducting various data operations including reading, writing, and modifying data. The present techniques also replicate data across data centers while providing consistency, access locality, and disaster tolerance.