The invention provides a system for information lifecycle management of storage data on a storage network architecture. The system provides for bi-directional data transfer between an information lifecycle management controller, a host file system storage area network and an information lifecycle management storage area network. The information lifecycle management controller helps manage the data storage file transfers between the subsystems of the host file system storage area network and information lifecycle management storage area network. The method provides an information lifecycle management shim program, which resides in the host computer of the host file system storage area network, for hostless information lifecycle management of the data storage files. The system further provides a user-defined information lifecycle management of the migration, replication, copying, and backing up of the storage data files.