Analyzing your existing backup job to identify the longest steps in the procedure is a good place to start. Make sure that your current process is running with the "LOG(4 00 *SECLVL) LOGCLPGM(*YES)" message logging parameters. This will ensure that all CL commands are logged into the joblog and that the joblog is always retained on the system for analysis. You need to find the longest running steps in the process and make sure that they get run via multiple batch jobs in a multi threaded job queue. Running a single threaded backup via a CL program or third party software will guarantee that your backup runs as long as possible, utilizing as little resources as possible. Don't be afraid to bury the system during a backup. It can handle it%21 If CPU, memory and disk are at capacity, your backup will finish quicker.