Described are techniques for servicing data requests in a data storage system. One or more data requests from an application executing on the host are received. The data storage system allocates a first amount of resources for use in servicing data requests from the application. Behavior of the host is monitored for occurrences of I/O failure. In accordance with criteria and the occurrences of I/O failure, it is determined whether at least one of the host or the application is in a state of pending failure. If it is determined that at least one of the host or the application is in a state of pending failure, a second amount of resources larger than the first amount are allocated for a time period when servicing data requests from the application. After the time period, data requests from the application are serviced in accordance with the first amount of resources.