Improve middleware performance

**Description**
Currently validation lacks proper backup support.

**Proposed solution**
Add configurable backup with sensible defaults.

**Priority**: Low/Medium

No file, test, or entry point is named. First locate the middleware and validation paths, then determine whether the requested work is performance-related or configurable backup support; confirm the expected defaults and add coverage showing that configuration and backup behavior are complete.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.