Survivable storage system design has become a popular research topic. This paper tackles the difficult problem of reasoning about the engineering trade-offs inherent in data distribution scheme selection. The choice of an encoding algorithm and its parameters positions a system at a particular point in a complex trade-off space between performance, availability and security. We demonstrate that no choice is right for all systems, and we present an approach to codifying and visualizing this trade-off space. Using this approach, we explore the sensitivity of the space to system characteristics, workload, and desired levels of security and availability. (May 2001)