Do you need to backup your Salesforce data?
Yes.
If your Salesforce data is important to your organization, then you need to have a backup plan in place. And that’s not all – you must be able to restore your Salesforce data if it’s lost or corrupted.
But Salesforce data can be tricky to restore, especially at enterprise scale. That’s because Salesforce data for large enterprises can be extremely complex due to Large Data Volumes, sophisticated data models, integrations, regulations to comply with, and more.
If enterprises are not using a Salesforce backup and restore solution specifically designed for their requirements, they’re at risk of failing to recover data. That can lead to catastrophic consequences like business interruption, reputational damage, and fines from regulatory agencies.
Here are answers to eight important questions about backing up and restoring Salesforce data in the enterprise.
Note: This post is a general overview of what enterprise Salesforce backup and restore entails. For a more detailed guide that covers all the technical aspects of Salesforce backup and restore, get “The Complete Guide to Salesforce Backup and Restore” here.
Salesforce data is business critical, especially in the enterprise. As enterprises ramp up adoption of Salesforce for critical processes, the data stored on the platform grows in volume, complexity, and importance.
For these reasons, Salesforce data must be protected against threats like data loss or corruption. And the first step to protecting Salesforce data is to back it up so that it can be restored if necessary.
You might be asking, “doesn’t Salesforce back up my data for me?” It’s not an uncommon question. In fact, there’s a misconception that Salesforce is responsible for their customers’ data that is stored in the platform.
But Salesforce (and most other cloud providers) embrace a ‘shared responsibility model,’ which means that Salesforce is responsible for the integrity of the platform, while the customers using the platform (you) are responsible for your data that’s stored in Salesforce.
That’s why enterprises must find the right Salesforce backup and restore solution that accommodates its complexity, size, and other requirements to protect against data disasters.
Salesforce backup and restore is the process of duplicating and storing Salesforce data so that it can be recovered if necessary.
In the event of data loss or corruption, the duplicate data in the Salesforce backup can be restored to the production environment so the company can revert to the correct version and continue business as usual.
Salesforce data backup is the process of making copies of data which is then stored in an external location.
Salesforce data restore is the process of recovering Salesforce data. To recover Salesforce data, you must first have a backup of the correct version.
It’s important to note that there are many possible roadblocks to a successful Salesforce data restoration. Every Salesforce Org is different, with unique data models, automations, and rules. Enterprises should regularly test the restore process to ensure that data can be completely recovered within the organization’s Recovery Time Objective (RTO).
Backing up Salesforce data is important because downtime caused by a data-related disaster can grind businesses to a halt – lasting hours, days, or even longer. By having a backup plan in place for Salesforce data, an organization can restore data from an earlier point in time and mitigate the impact that the data corruption or data attack event would have on business continuity.
Therefore, running a backup of Salesforce data on a regular basis helps organizations bounce back to business from data corruption or data loss events.
When it comes to backup solutions for Salesforce data, there are typically three options:
You can learn more about the top considerations for choosing the right Salesforce backup and restore solution here.
There are two types of information you can backup from Salesforce: data and metadata. The first step is to determine what type of data you want to backup.
Salesforce provides four APIs to backup data and metadata information from the application:
These APIs will allow you to set up either a full, incremental, or partial backup.
Let’s take a deeper look at the three types of backup.
For more detail on APIs and the technical aspects of Salesforce backup and restore, get “The Complete Guide to Salesforce Backup and Restore” here
You must ensure that you’re backing up all your important Salesforce data – not just some of it – and at the right frequency.
The following are what need to be considered when developing a Salesforce backup plan:
Conduct a risk assessment for your data. Take stock of the potential risks that your Salesforce data could face: human error like accidental deletion, data theft from malicious actors, system failure from a failed update, or any other means through which it is possible to lose data. Assess how it would impact your business if one or more of these disruptions to your data were to happen. Once you know what the risks are, you’ll be better prepared to design a strategy to combat them.
Not all data can be treated the same. Different kinds of data have different backup requirements and it’s important to be aware of that. Some Salesforce data might not require backup, whereas mission-critical data might require the highest degree of continuous data protection. Understanding at what level to protect different kinds of data makes Salesforce data restoration and recovery more efficient and effective.
Once you know what to backup, and how, the next step is to determine the data backup frequency. Not all data needs to be backed up at the same frequency. Critical objects may need to be backed up every 15 minutes, whereas less critical ones may only need weekly backups. The risk level and the level of importance of data to your business determine the frequency of backup.
A data loss incident can happen at any time, so organizations need to be prepared to mitigate its consequences by having the most up-to-date Salesforce data to revert to.
Protecting enterprise Salesforce data is very difficult to do properly without the tools and resources designed for that exact purpose. An effective approach to protecting enterprise Salesforce data needs to take into account the context, not just the data, and navigate many roadblocks to a successful data restore.
A few reasons backing up Salesforce data is complex in the enterprise are:
Learn more about what enterprises need to know about Salesforce backup and restore here.
Back up more than 300 million records per hour, run backups every 15 minutes, and back up data, metadata, and files—all while minimizing API and governor limit consumption.
Proactively eliminate roadblocks, bypass automations, and restore parent-child relationships up to 30 levels deep. Restore even the most complex objects to any point in time.
Odaseva offers a range of options from a single record restore to rolling back an entire Salesforce object to a specific point in time.
Odaseva Salesforce Backup & Restore offers five levels of data encryption. We’re a no-view provider, which means we can never see your data.
Odaseva analytics gives you a detailed view of exactly what’s happening with your data. Monitor every change, set up custom alerts, and drill into any event to launch a restore operation.
For more information and to watch a demo, visit Odaseva’s Backup and Restore page here.
To learn about all the ways Odaseva can protect your Salesforce data, schedule a demo with us today.
Further reading:
Data Protection
Data Security
Data Archiving
Data Compliance
Data Platform
