Patent ID: 8001087

Claim:
A method, said method comprising: generating a business rule, wherein said business rule indicates whether a file should be included in a backup operation, storing said business rule in a business rules data structure, said business rule is configured to use first data and second data, said first data is captured by a file modification monitor, and said second data is captured by an application specific monitor; accumulating data in a file history database, wherein said data represents one or more associations between said file and one or more applications configured to access said file, said data comprises a plurality of file records corresponding to a respective plurality of files, said first data and said second data are included in a first file record of said plurality of file records; determining a result indicating whether said file should be included in said backup operation, wherein said determining said result comprises obtaining said business rule by accessing said business rules data structure, retrieving said data from said file history database, and determining an importance of said file to a user by evaluating said data using said business rule, and said result is based, at least in part, on said importance; and reporting said result.