1. A computer implemented method comprising: providing a history of data lifecycles for a plurality of data sets protected via a backup store having one or more storage devices, wherein each data lifecycle represents a data path across one or more of the storage devices in time during which a data set has been copied or moved according to one of a first set of policies for backup maintained by the backup store, the data path including information recording the one or more storage devices and time the data set was copied or moved at each of the one or more storage devices; determining, by a similarity analysis module, similarity measures among the data lifecycles, wherein the similarity measures indicate whether data path of the data lifecycles accessing the data sets are similar, including determining whether any of data paths of the lifecycles leads to a common target storage device; consolidating, by a policy updating module, the first set of policies into a second set of policies based on the similarity measures of the data lifecycles, wherein a number of the second set of policies is smaller than a number of the first set of policies, wherein at least two or more of the first set of policies are combined into one single policy, wherein the two or more of the first set of policies are similar according to the similarity measures; and in response to a client request to protect a particular data set, configuring the storage devices to back up the particular data set according to one of the second set of policies that is associated with the particular data set.