Techniques are described for predicting the storage capacity and performance requirements for deploying and maintaining a backup solution within an enterprise. In particular, a backup system is described which uses an initial pilot phase, during which the system can gather information about the files and data on each end user's device (i.e., client device) that will be backed up and provide a more realistic estimate and resource planning for the backup solution deployment. This initial pilot phase can be performed before any content is actually backed up from the client devices.