Does Salesforce Backup My Data? What You Need to Know

When DoorDash tried to backup their Salesforce environment, their vendor simply timed out. With 17 billion records to protect, they learned a hard lesson: not all backup solutions can handle enterprise scale.

The answer to "Does Salesforce backup my data?" is both yes and no. Salesforce backs up its infrastructure, but under the shared responsibility model, you're responsible for protecting your data from human error, integration failures, and other user-level risks.

Here's what you need to know.

Does Salesforce Automatically Backup My Data?

Short answer: No, not in a way you can recover.

Salesforce performs continuous infrastructure backups using real-time replication between data centers. This protects against hardware failures and natural disasters—but it doesn't protect against the most common causes of data loss:

• Accidental deletion by users or admins
• Bad deployments (buggy triggers, misconfigured flows)
• Integration failures that corrupt data
• Malicious activity by internal users
• Mass data import mistakes

According to a Stanford study, 88% of data breaches stem from human error—exactly the scenarios Salesforce's infrastructure backups don't cover.

What is the Shared Responsibility Model?

Think of it like renting an apartment.

The landlord ensures the building doesn't collapse and the roof doesn't leak. But you're responsible for protecting your belongings inside. If you accidentally throw away important documents, the landlord's insurance won't recover them.

Similarly:

• Salesforce secures the platform infrastructure
• You must protect your data from user-level risks

What Are Salesforce's Native Backup Options?

Free Tools

Data Export Service - Weekly or monthly CSV exports

• Up to 29 days between backups = potential data loss
• No metadata included
• Must download within 48 hours
• Manual restore process

Data Loader - Manual bulk export tool

• Time-consuming for each object
• No attachments support
• No scheduling

Salesforce's Paid Solutions

Salesforce Backup & Recovery services:

• Automated daily backups
• Data and metadata coverage
• Point-in-time restore
• Daily frequency only (not hourly)
• Subject to API limits at scale
• Data stored on Salesforce infrastructure

For mid-size orgs, this is often sufficient. For enterprises with large data volumes or strict independence requirements, it may fall short.

What Happens When Backup Solutions Can't Handle Scale?

DoorDash's Experience

As a company generating hundreds of thousands of Salesforce records daily, DoorDash selected a reputable backup vendor. The result? According to Lead Salesforce Engineer Jeegar Brahmakshatriya, the tool "had limitations that caused it to just timeout, and not be able to backup the data."

The problem was scale. DoorDash needed to protect 17 billion records across 1,900 objects—volumes that broke their first vendor.

Why Scale Breaks Standard Tools

API Governor Limits - Salesforce enforces strict API limits. Standard tools consume APIs inefficiently, causing timeouts at large volumes.

Backup Windows - At extreme scale, backups can take 20+ hours. No time to recover before the next cycle begins.

Performance Impact - Inefficient processes degrade production performance. DoorDash manages 80 million accounts and 2.7 TB of files—they needed a solution that wouldn't slow down their 1,000 call center agents.

Metadata Complexity - Tools must backup complex relationships and specialized content like Salesforce Knowledge articles (critical for companies like DoorDash's customer service operations).

How Do I Know If I Need Enterprise Backup?

Ask yourself these questions:

Scale

• Do you have 10M+ records? (entering Large Data Volume territory)
• 100M+ records? (standard tools may struggle)
• 1B+ records? (enterprise platform required)

Regulatory Requirements

• GDPR compliance (hospitality, EU operations)
• SOX requirements (financial services)
• HIPAA mandates (healthcare)
• Industry-specific retention rules

Backup Frequency

• Can you afford 24-hour data loss? (daily backups)
• Need hourly protection? (requires specialized solutions)
• Near real-time recovery? (continuous data protection)

Operational Needs

• Complex org architecture (multiple sandboxes, thousands of objects)
• Frequent deployments (higher risk of errors)
• Critical business processes (sales, customer service dependencies)

What Should I Look for in a Backup Solution?

Critical capabilities: data security and restore-readiness are the two pillars for comprehensive backup and restore solutions.

Proven Scale Performance - Ask for specific examples at your data volume. Can they show successful backups at your scale?

API Efficiency - At large volumes, API consumption determines success or failure. Look for solutions with documented efficiency metrics and which can use all available APIs to support different backup requirements.

Complete Metadata Coverage - Must include custom objects, Knowledge articles, workflows, and all relationships. Incomplete metadata = impossible restoration.

Flexible Backup Frequency - Options from hourly to continuous, not just daily.

Granular Restore - Restore a single field, entire object, or a major, large scale restoration that involves many objects with complex hierarchies and circular references. Point-in-time recovery to any previous snapshot.

Platform Independence - Many security frameworks recommend storing backups separate from production platforms.

What Are Common Data Loss Scenarios?

Human Error (Most Common)

Tools like Data Loader let admins modify thousands of records in seconds. One mistake in a CSV file can wipe data permanently.

Bad Deployments

Buggy Apex code or misconfigured flows can cause mass corruption. Without backups, you're rebuilding data manually.

Integration Failures

Sync errors with external systems can overwrite correct data with incorrect information. Accor experienced this during a migration—their backup enabled same-day recovery.

Malicious Activity

Disgruntled employees or compromised credentials can deliberately delete or modify critical business data.

Platform Updates

Salesforce ships updates three times yearly. While rare, compatibility issues can cause unexpected data loss.

How Do I Evaluate My Backup Requirements?

Define two key metrics:

Recovery Time Objective (RTO): How much downtime can you tolerate?

• If sales can't access Salesforce for 24 hours, what's the revenue impact?
• Do you need recovery in hours, not days?

Recovery Point Objective (RPO): How much data loss is acceptable?

• Can you lose a week of customer interactions? (weekly backups)
• Can you lose 24 hours? (daily backups)
• Can you lose 4 hours? (DoorDash's requirement)

For critical, fast-changing data, daily backups mean potential 24-hour data loss. DoorDash runs incremental backups every 4 hours to minimize risk.

Key Takeaways

The reality: Salesforce protects its infrastructure. You protect your data.

The challenge: Native tools have limitations—particularly around frequency, metadata coverage, and Large Data Volumes. When DoorDash's first vendor timed out on 17 billion records, they learned vendor selection matters.

The solution: Define your RTO and RPO. Understand your regulatory requirements. If you manage large volumes, evaluate solutions built for scale.

The critical step: Test your backup regularly. Don't discover during a disaster that your solution can't actually recover your data.

Your Salesforce data powers your business. Make sure your backup strategy can protect it.

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