A system, method and program product for assigning management classes to data objects. The disclosed system includes a class assignment system for assigning a management class to an inputted data object, wherein the class assignment system analyzes historical usage characteristics of existing data objects that have attributes similar to the inputted data object; and a data analysis system that analyzes existing data objects to generate a knowledge base of historical usage characteristics. The historical usage characteristics are updated as existing objects make their way through the storage lifecycle.