A method and system for data traffic management in a storage area network subsystem connected to multiple hosts via plural ports through a connection network is provided. Traffic management involves, for each port, determining input/output (IO) traffic utilization load of the port based on workloads from one or more hosts assigned to that port; and detecting if a port is in utilization overload. Then, upon detecting a port utilization overload, port traffic is managed by adjusting traffic utilization of the overloaded port and one or more other ports in the storage subsystem, to reduce traffic utilization of the overloaded port.