1. A method for adjusting the configuration of a cache within a computer system that includes at least one entity that submits a stream of references, each reference corresponding to a location identifier corresponding to data storage locations in a storage system, the method comprising: spatially sampling, at a sampling rate, the stream of references by: selecting a threshold value; computing a hash value for each reference; comparing the hash value for each reference in the stream with the threshold value and selecting only those references whose hash value meets a selection criterion; selecting a plurality of caching configurations; concurrently applying the selected references as inputs to a plurality of caching simulations each corresponding to a respective one of the caching configurations, and computing a resulting, respective set of cache utility values for each caching simulation; selecting an optimal configuration from among the caching configurations as a function of the computed sets of cache utility values for each caching simulation; and configuring the cache according to the optimal configuration.