In an embodiment of the invention, a method comprises: recording application-level heuristics and IO-level (input/output-level) heuristics; correlating and analyzing the application-level heuristics and IO-level heuristics; and based on an analysis and correlation of the application-level heuristics and IO-level heuristics, generating a policy for achieving optimal application performance. In another embodiment of the invention, an apparatus comprises: a system configured to record application-level heuristics and IO-level heuristics, to correlate and analyze the application-level heuristics and IO-level heuristics, and based on an analysis and correlation of the application-level heuristics and IO-level heuristics, to generate a policy for achieving optimal application performance.