The Essential Guide to Salesforce Data Backups

Proper utilization of Salesforce data backups provides the support your organization needs to regain functionality after a data loss event while ensuring compliance with applicable data security regulations.

Why It Matters: Data loss events are more common than many people think. System data can be compromised through simple errors, technological mishaps, and security breaches—all of which threaten the quality and reliability of Salesforce data.

• Last year, the average cost of a data breach was $4.45 million.
• Even though the average cost of data breaches continues to rise, only about half of organizations are planning to increase their IT security spend.
• Salesforce data backups are a critical aspect of recovering from a data loss event.

Here are six essential considerations for Salesforce data backups:

1. Why Salesforce Data Backups Are So Important
2. Native vs. Third-Party Backups
3. Features to Look for in a Backup Tool
4. Salesforce Data Backup Best Practices
5. The Importance of Data Archiving
6. Implications for Security and Compliance

1. Why Salesforce Data Backups Are So Important

Backups can seem like an afterthought. However, failing to maintain a recent backup can end up costing your organization massive amounts of time and money as you scramble to regain operations after a data loss event.

A minute of downtime, on average, costs about $9,000.

And that doesn’t even factor in the inconvenience to your users and the negative impacts on compliance. Access to a recent backup is the only way to minimize these harmful consequences.

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2. Native vs. Third-Party Backups

The more control you have over your data backups, the better. There are a lot of intricate considerations, such as scheduling options and granular control over which datasets to back up, which users find difficult in Salesforce’s native backup tool.

Organizations with heightened needs for frequent and tailored data backups often find third-party solutions like AutoRABIT Vault better protect their environment.

Vault offers the specificity repeatability DevOps teams need to maintain reliable backups.  

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3. Features to Look For in a Backup Tool

Granular control over every aspect of your backup repository enables organizations in every industry—but particularly those in regulated industries—to ensure their data remains high-quality no matter which environment it is stored in.

Here are some critical features that should be present in your Salesforce data backup tool:

• Complete and incremental Salesforce data backups
• The choice between on-premises or cloud storage
• The ability to view archived data in Salesforce
• Flexible deployment options
• Encryption + data masking
• Role-based access control (RBAC) and single sign-on (SSO)
• Restore with unlimited metadata depth
• The ability to compare backup snapshots with live environments
• Sandbox seeding and replication

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4. Salesforce Data Backup Best Practices

There are many ways to configure a Salesforce data backup. Your approach to this will determine how well your system is protected when something goes wrong. Taking the time to properly address every aspect of a backup strategy gives you the best chance at quickly returning to operations after an outage.

Although your data backup strategy needs to be thoroughly planned at the outset, this approach should be continually updated as your needs evolve.

Check out this blog for an in-depth look into how to establish a quality data backup strategy.

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5. The Importance of Data Archiving

Data archiving is a critical functionality of a Salesforce data backup tool that improves your data backups along with the functionality of your environment as a whole.

Data archiving is essentially a maintenance consideration, but it has broad implications for data security and streamlined operation of your Salesforce platform.

This functionality must be utilized for an optimized Salesforce DevOps experience. To learn more, read this blog.

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6. Implications for Security and Compliance

A reliable backup repository is critical for security and compliance. It does this in a variety of ways:

• Preserving data integrity
• Meeting data retention requirements
• Enhancing data security
• Facilitating data recovery
• Maintaining audit trails
• Supporting disaster recovery planning

Lost or otherwise compromised data can lead to compliance failures. But even those companies that operate outside of a regulated industry will lose customer trust and create massive amounts of rework if a reliable Salesforce data backup strategy is not maintained.

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Next Step…

Salesforce data backups are a critical aspect of properly managing your data. However, this is only one aspect of this essential consideration.

Our ebook, The Definitive Handbook to Quality Management in Salesforce DevOps, gives you everything you need to know about maintaining reliable, high-quality data sets.

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FAQs

How often should I back up my Salesforce data?

The answer to this question will be different for every organization—and it’s likely to change over time. The frequency of backing up your Salesforce data depends on numerous factors, including data usage, activity levels, and how much data you can stand to lose should an outage occur. Generally, organizations should back up their Salesforce data at least once every day to capture any changes or updates made throughout the day. However, if your organization deals with high volumes of critical data or operates in a regulated industry like finance or healthcare, more frequent backups might be necessary—up to multiple times each day. Regular assessments of data usage and risk factors can help determine the best backup frequency for your organization.

What’s the difference between data backup, data replication, and data archives in Salesforce?

Properly protecting your Salesforce data requires the utilization of a series of tools. Data backup, replication, and archiving all have their place in a comprehensive data quality approach. Backups are copies of your data captured to safeguard against accidental deletion, corruption, or system failures. Data replication, on the other hand, focuses on maintaining real-time copies of data across multiple systems or databases, ensuring consistent and synchronized data across different environments. Data archiving involves moving older or less frequently accessed data to long-term storage, freeing up space in the primary database while retaining access for compliance or historical purposes.

Can I back up metadata along with my Salesforce data?

You certainly can! However, the efficacy of this approach will largely depend on the tool you use for your Salesforce data backups. Metadata components such as custom objects, fields, workflows, page layouts, reports, and dashboards can all be included in your backup processes with a tool like AutoRABIT Vault. This aids in compliance with data security regulations while also guaranteeing consistent functionality of your Salesforce environment.

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