The overall security of your Salesforce platform is going to be he sum of a variety of factors. A major aspect your overall security is going to involve both how your code is written, and how it is handled.
And if security is one of your major concerns, code quality is going to be right at the top of the list as well. What’s the point of introducing new products or services to the market if you aren’t going to be confident in their quality?
This can lead to a perceived balancing act with security on one side and code quality on the other.
The amount of time and attention—combined with the tactics to keep your Salesforce system and data secure—will surely come as a detriment to the quality of products, right?
This doesn’t have to be true. Proper attention to relevant procedures and processes can help you maintain a secure Salesforce system while also producing quality products.
Streamlining your Salesforce development process with utilization of available tools and efficient methods generates repeatable, quality procedures.
How do you establish these procedures?
Here are 7 ways you can ensure the security of your Salesforce system while keeping code quality levels high:
Automate Code Quality Checks
Coding errors produce negative effects beyond a failed deployment. Improper code can also become a security concern. Waiting until the end of the development cycle to catch coding errors increases your chances of missing these mistakes altogether.
Checking every piece of code at every level can become tedious and time consuming.
The good news is that automation can be used to check new code updates as they’re committed into the shared repository.
Continuous integration (CI) is the process of automatically integrating code from multiple developers into a single software release. The CI server actively monitors the code repository while performing frequent tests to seek out errors.
Continually monitored code has a much higher chance of catching errors before they can be exploited, without costing your team time and attention.
Your team members aren’t going to need access to every part of your Salesforce development platform.
Taking some time to adjust user permissions can provide two benefits—it helps to keep your team members focused on the task at hand, while also heightening security.
Overexposed data can become a security concern. More people having access to your Salesforce data creates more opportunities for that data to become compromised.
Employees are able to avoid distractions without getting lost within your system when they are only able to access the information and data they need to perform their functions.
Take the time to adjust employee permissions within Salesforce and adjust it as your needs evolve.
Institute Best Practices
Intentional and unified practices by your team can not only set the standard for code quality, but also help your Salesforce system as a whole remain secure.
Instruct your team to adhere to a series of best practices to maintain a focus on security.
A cohesive plan can be integrated into the daily practices of your team. It becomes second nature and doesn’t make their jobs any harder, but it helps streamline their efforts.
Click here to read through our list of 12 Salesforce data security best practices. This list helps your team maintain the integrity of your system through a series of simple but effective standards.
Archive Unused Data
You will sometimes find Salesforce data that doesn’t directly affect the functionality of your system or provide other useful benefits. However, you might want to use it in the future so you don’t want to delete it altogether.
Archiving your data is the process of moving unused data out of the production system and putting it in long-term storage.
This provides a handful of benefits:
- Makes room on your server for other functions to operate more smoothly.
- Clears up your platform so users can easily find the information and data they need to perform their duties.
- Reduces the amount of data to back up.
- Reduces potential data security issues.
- Enhances productivity by reducing efforts in maintaining and managing software and infrastructure for backup storage.
Monitor Reports
Your teams’ habits directly impact productivity and security. We’ve discussed the importance of communicating a series of best practices to your team, but how do you know if they are following these practices?
Set up relevant and repeatable reports in your Salesforce system to track the output of your team.
These reports provide essential information relating to performance across all modules, code coverage reports of your Salesforce orgs, and various system audits.
You can use these reports to manage internal DevOps habits with an eye toward productivity and security.
Backup & Restore Functionality
The most important consideration for maintaining proper levels of security is to have frequently-updated backups of your Salesforce data and the ability to restore it.
Corrupted data—whether through an intentional or accidental act—can create major security concerns and a large amount of extra work for your team.
Contemporary system backups provide a pool of data that can be easily accessed in the event of a data disaster.
Restore functionality brings this data from your backup and onto your live system quickly and easily. This gets your system back online without the need for your employees to perform large amounts of redundant work.
Proper Systems Make Happier Employees
Your team is what keeps your company moving toward a bright and profitable future. And while new team members are an asset to this success, legacy team members are essential.
New team members will need training and some time to get adjusted to your organization. Experienced team members can hit the ground running in a safe and productive way.
It’s in your company’s best interest to keep your employees happy so they stick with you for a long time.
Proper systems—including user best practices and updated software—create a healthy working environment.
Happy team members produce high quality work without the security risks associated with disgruntled employees.
Keeping your team members happy and your Salesforce system safe can both be done in a way that also promotes productivity. There’s no need to sacrifice one for the other.
