Losing access to your metadata—and therefore the functionality of your Salesforce platform—can be a huge problem.
Businesses rely on this functionality to complete their daily tasks. It’s how they serve customers. Team members rely on the ability to efficiently and confidently perform their duties.
There are many ways a system can lose access to its own data. Software malfunctions, improper data imports, integration of bad code—but the most innocuous reason is actually the most prevalent:
User error accounts for 75% of data loss.
The ramifications of data loss will vary in every instance, but there are some consequences that remain common:
- Creation of redundant work to get back to baseline
- An interruption in services to employees and/or customers
- Potential permanent loss of access to essential data
Salesforce metadata operates directly behind all the important data your company collects and uses every day. Losing access to this metadata will create issues that can have long-term ramifications.
It’s essential to backup both your Salesforce data and metadata. Data often gets all the attention because team members and customers directly interact with it, but losing metadata will make those interactions more difficult.
Backing up your metadata is merely the first step in getting your system back online after a data disaster. You must also have the ability to restore metadata from the backup repository.
Here are 6 benefits you can expect from restoring your Salesforce metadata:
1. Consistent User Interface
The way in which users can move within your platform has a direct impact on their enjoyment of it. We get accustomed to certain functions. We memorize the location of buttons and fields. Moving or losing these specifics makes it more difficult and more annoying to use the interface.
Metadata dictates many specifics as to how users interact with your platform. Various components will have their structure described and cataloged within the metadata.
Losing this metadata means losing the functionality and specifications of these components.
A data loss event can affect the structure of your Salesforce instance. Modifications or regressions to this structure will impact how successful your users will be in performing their tasks.
Backing up this metadata means you won’t lose the functions your users expect, and restoring it avoids any potential confusion.
2. Maintain Data Structure
Your Salesforce data is structured to address the needs of your company. This is going to change across the various Salesforce accounts of different businesses.
At its core, a data structure (or data model) stipulates the relationship between various Salesforce objects.
Another way of putting it is that your data model is akin to the architectural structure of your Salesforce data.
Salesforce Apex relies on this structure and uses it to establish value sets, customized applications, and more. And if the data model is the architectural structure of this, metadata is the framework within the walls.
Losing your Salesforce metadata brings this structure to the ground. The ability to restore your metadata maintains the original layout and allows your team and customers to utilize Salesforce as they did in the past.
3. Platform Customizations
Salesforce is a tool that can be used for a variety of different purposes. This is why it’s grown to be used by thousands of companies. Its potential for customization offers value to businesses in just about every industry.
These customizations can be built into your specific Salesforce instance through specialized Lightning pages, components, and more.
Metadata is the driving force behind maintaining functionality of these customizations.
Data loss or corruption can erase these customizations and set your operations back a sizeable amount of time. Developers are then forced to backtrack and reinstitute essential customizations to get the system back to its previous level of operations.
This can all be avoided by simply backing up the relevant metadata and restoring it as soon as its needed. Customized functionality will again have the infrastructure needed to operate as it did prior to the data loss event.
4. Maintain Metadata Relationships
Related fields and objects can streamline operations. These input fields can be set to automatically populate related fields and provide relevant data to various pages, forms, and objects necessary to your operations.
These relationships will need to be reprogrammed and linked if your data and metadata are lost through corruption or human error.
Metadata preserves the links between the various fields and objects. Contemporary backups provide the ability to restore these links to keep your Salesforce system operating efficiently.
5. Retain Settings Through Managed Packages
A managed package is an application available in the Salesforce marketplace that is generally constructed by a third-party vendor. They can be used for a variety of services and are often able to be further customized for your particular needs through a series of settings.
These settings will impact your company’s direct benefits from using a managed package. This can include considerations such as access control settings for users.
These settings can all be reset by a data loss event, requiring a complete reconfiguration of the managed package.
Those with backed up metadata and the ability to restore it can simply reinstitute their previous settings and continue forward.
6. Speedy Return to Operations
There are many reasons to institute the infrastructure for backing up and restoring your data and metadata.
Continued access to essential information will get your systems back up and running much more quickly should an accidental deletion or software malfunction occur.
Metadata might exist behind the scenes, but it is essential to the continued successful operation of your Salesforce instance. It has a direct impact on how your functions operate and will need to be replaced should it be damaged or lost.
And the ability to quickly restore a contemporary backup will get your company back to normal operations without a detrimental gap in services.
