The present invention relates to a distributed data storage system comprising a plurality of storage nodes. Using unicast and multicast transmission, a server application may read and write data in the storage system. Each storage node may monitor reading and writing operations on the system as well as the status of other storage nodes. In this way, the storage nodes may detect a need for replication of files on the system, and may carry out a replication process that serves to maintain a storage of a sufficient number of copies of files with correct versions at geographically diverse locations.