1. A method for protecting data in a computing system, comprising: receiving input specifying one or more parameters of a data protection process, wherein each parameter identifies a different respective type of data protection operation; automatically consulting a resource map to identify backup resources that are available, wherein the resource map includes a list of a plurality of different types of backup resources that comprise physical storage media and/or virtual storage media; automatically checking a rules engine to identify a rule that correlates specific backup resource types to the one or more parameters of the data protection process and that, when executed, performs the data protection process using the available backup resources, wherein a particular data protection backup resource type employed in the data protection process is a function of one of the parameters of the data protection process; and when one or more rules are identified that correspond to the data protection process and that, when executed, performs the data protection process using the available backup resources, automatically selecting one of the identified rules and performing the specified data protection process using the selected rule.