Modern storage arrays place data in a storage performance tier matching its access statistics. The tier level for any given data is determined using monitoring of usage of the data in the tiers over large time intervals. Data frequently accessed is placed in faster tiers whereas data seldom accessed is placed in lower tiers, thus optimizing access times for the data. Monitoring of data usage is performed over large time scales due to typically large data set size and the fact that changes to the data usage frequency occur slowly: hot data is hot for a period of time, and later the data turns cold usually staying cold from then on. However, backup data typically has a different usage profile: a full backup is typically performed weekly overwriting one of the previous copies, with incremental backups occurring during each day the week. During the full backup, the best system performance is required to fit the backup into the ever shrinking window for performing the backup (e.g., given the always on demands placed on today's data systems). However, afterward the backup, the data needed for the backup stays cold until the next backup (e.g., a full or incremental backup).