executing a processor-based search engine to scan content data stored in a database to identify metadata associated with data elements to be monitored on the basis of monitoring attributes including usage and access patterns;

gathering the identified metadata for storage in a data catalog;

executing, by the search engine, a user entered query against the metadata in the data catalog to automatically generate a dataset comprising metadata selectors as tags for matching the identified metadata;

defining rules based on the monitoring attributes, wherein a rule dictates a storage location of data or access permissions to the data by one or more persons or groups in the system and a subjectively scaled characterization of the data as important in a current project by the one or more persons;

applying a protection policy to the dataset to protect the content data, wherein the dataset spans multiple storage devices of different storage types, and wherein the dataset defines a single data access unit for the referenced data elements from the database, and further wherein the monitoring attributes are applied to the referenced data elements as a single unit based on data content rather than data location, and yet further wherein the content data comprises archive data classified into multiple datasets, each having different protection policies;

recursively processing the archive data to attach corresponding tags to each dataset;

merging policies of the corresponding tags based on a most restrictive policy of the different protection policies for the archive data to define the protection policy; and

executing a processor-based backup process using the protection policy to store the archive data in storage media.