Method, system, and computer program product to facilitate selection of data nodes configured to satisfy a set of requirements for processing client data in a distributed computing environment by providing, for each data node of a plurality of data nodes in the distributed computing environment, nodal data describing the respective data node of the plurality of data nodes, receiving a request to process the client data, the client data being identified in the request, retrieving the set of requirements for processing the client data, and analyzing the retrieved data policy and the nodal data describing at least one of the data nodes, to select a first data node of the plurality of data nodes as a delegation target, the first data node selected based on having a higher suitability level for satisfying the set of requirements than a second data node of the plurality of data nodes.