1. A method for backing up data, the method comprising: surveying an environment, the environment including a plurality of nodes which are each associated with one or more databases, to determine a distribution of the databases across the nodes; creating a database profile based on the survey, wherein the database profile includes an identification of a node with maximum ownership of databases; generating a preferred server order list (PSOL) that is based on the database profile, a last activation preference for one of the databases, and a failover preference for one of the databases; balancing a backup workload among the nodes using the PSOL; and backing up one of the databases using results of the backup workload balancing.