Backup policies specifying backup frequencies are stored. An identification of a logical unit number (LUN) to which a virtual volume of a virtual machine has been mapped and an input/output (IO) rate of the LUN are gathered from a storage array. A backup policy having a range of IO rates that correspond to the IO rate of the LUN gathered from the storage array is selected. The virtual volume is backed up according to a particular backup frequency as specified in the selected backup policy.