Salesforce Architects play a critical role in shaping how enterprises manage and secure their data, and their insights are a strong signal of where the ecosystem is heading.
That’s why Odaseva sponsored Salesforce Ben’s survey of more than 600 Salesforce Architects – to learn answers to the most pressing questions about the architect role today, ranging from the state of the ecosystem, to security and third-party vendors, to the impact of AI.
First things first – who are Salesforce Architects? These senior technical leaders design and oversee the architecture of complex Salesforce implementations. Their level of expertise means that Salesforce Architects often make critical decisions for large businesses around data models, integrations, and overall performance. There are several types of Salesforce Architects including Technical Architects, Solution Architects, and Certified Technical Architects (the highest technical certification offered by Salesforce).
Because their role is at the intersection of business strategy and technical execution, their perspectives offer a valuable look into what enterprises need to succeed on the Salesforce platform. That’s part of what makes their insights so valuable.
“They are strategic thinkers who shape systems and solutions that align technical execution with long-term business goals. As digital transformation accelerates across industries, understanding the role, responsibilities, and realities of Salesforce Architects has never been more important.” – Christine Marshall, Technical Content Lead, Salesforce Ben
Overall, the 2025 Salesforce Architect Survey results convey an ecosystem under pressure to adapt, including the expansion of Architects’ role, shifts in priorities, concerns about AI, and much more.
For us at Odaseva, the responses revealed illuminating data about Architects’ approach to testing whether their Salesforce data can be recovered from backups, Salesforce data security, independence from Salesforce, and the need for solutions purpose-built for enterprise Salesforce environments.
Now let’s take a look at the survey results. Our highlights are below, and you can watch the replay of the webinar “Architecture Insights for the Salesforce Ecosystem” here (co-hosted by Odaseva CEO Sovan Bin, CTA and Salesforce Ben’s Technical Content Lead, Christine Marshall), or access the full report here.
Question asked: “Do you believe your Salesforce data backups are more secure (against ransomware attacks, outage impacts, etc) when stored separately from Salesforce, such as by using an independent backup vendor?”
Response summary: Almost twice as many respondents (41.9% vs 23.5%) believe their Salesforce data backups are more secure when stored separately from Salesforce.
What it means: This confirms the market’s trust in partnering with independent Salesforce backup and restore vendors for stronger protection against ransomware, outages, and other threats that necessitate a powerful backup and restore plan.
For more information: Read The Golden Rules of Backups: Recoverability & Independence
“Regulation is now enforcing it [Salesforce backups to be stored separately from Salesforce] so when you look at modern regulations like DORA… they insist on two particular areas: 1 is that you need to diversify your risk. Article 6 recommends implementing a multi-vendor strategy. By having a multi-vendor strategy, you diversify the risk profile of the vendor that you work with. 2 is the separation of the production environment, the secondary system that is going to protect the first [environment] needs to be as separated as possible to diversify the risk profile so that the same problem will not lead to the same consequences.” – Sovan Bin, CTA, CEO of Odaseva.
Question asked: “How often do you execute recovery tests to confirm the efficacy of your backups and disaster recovery plans?”
Response summary: Two-thirds of respondents (67.6%) don’t know how often they execute recovery tests.
What it means: This result is alarming, as it reveals that these respondents have no idea if their backed up data is actually recoverable! If backups can’t be recovered, they’re useless. Regular, comprehensive recovery testing is critical to ensure data can actually be recovered when a disaster strikes.
For more information: Read The Need-To-Know Guide to Restoring Enterprise Salesforce Data
“DORA says at the minimum, you should test your Disaster Recovery Plan at least once a year.” – Sovan Bin, CTA, CEO of Odaseva
Question asked: “How important is additional encryption for Salesforce Shield data once it leaves Salesforce and enters an external system?”
Response summary: More than three-quarters of respondents (76.8%) believe it’s very important for additional encryption for Salesforce Shield data once it leaves Salesforce and enters an external system.
What it means: When data leaves Salesforce, the market understands it needs additional protection. This is where end-to-end encryption comes in. As a Zero Trust solution, it ensures data remains fully protected—encrypted in transit, during processing, and at rest—even when it moves to an external system.
For more information: Read How to Choose the Right Encryption Architecture to Protect Your SaaS Data
Question asked: Do you currently use a backup solution?
Response summary: More than one-third of respondents (37%) don’t have a backup and restore solution in place.
What it means: This is alarming! Lacking a backup solution leaves organizations vulnerable to both internal and external threats including ransomware, malicious employees, accidental deletions and more. Salesforce doesn’t backup their customer’s data – the companies using Salesforce are responsible for protecting their own data – and without a backup and restore plan in place, critical data can be lost forever.
For more information: Read Seven Myths and Truths about Protecting your Salesforce Data
“With any database or service, you need to think about encryption as a flow where if you have a weakness during that flow, the attacker will actually attack that particular weakness.” – Sovan Bin, CTA, CEO of Odaseva
Question asked: “Do you believe purpose-built data security and management solutions are necessary when dealing with Large Data Volumes, multi-Org environments, or other complex factors?”
Response summary: The overwhelming majority of respondents (93.2%) believe purpose-built data security and management solutions are necessary for enterprises,
What it means: Salesforce Architects understand the importance of enterprise solutions in the market to address challenges like Large Data Volumes, complex data models, multi-Org environments etc. That’s because Salesforce data security and management solutions aren’t one-size-fits-all, and choosing the right vendor for the organization’s specific needs is critically important.
For more information: Read Checklist: Salesforce Backup and Restore Vendor Capabilities
“Whenever you have such a huge amount of complexity within the system, this is where having solutions that are designed to handle this complexity will be mandatory – otherwise it will just time out.”
– Sovan Bin, CTA, CEO of Odaseva
Question asked: “How important is expertise in the Salesforce ecosystem when it comes to choosing AppExchange solutions?”
Response summary: 98.8% of respondents believe a vendor with Salesforce expertise is valuable, and 72.1% believe it’s extremely valuable and necessary.
What it means: Almost all Salesforce Architects surveyed understand the importance of choosing vendors that demonstrate the expertise and experience required to secure and manage critical Salesforce data.
For more information: Read Securing Your Cloud: Evaluating for Risk In Salesforce AppExchange Integrations
Question asked: Would you agree with the following statement? “I have serious concerns about AI and security.”
Response summary: Almost half (48.9%) of respondents have serious concerns about AI and security.
What it means: While not surprising given the challenges around securing data used in AI models, this response highlights the need for organizations leveraging AI to partner with Salesforce vendors who can secure data used in AI models through solutions like tokenization, masking, pseudonymization and filtering.
For more information: Read Securing Data in AI Models: Mitigate Risk with Odaseva, Salesforce Data Cloud, and Einstein AI
Question asked: Would you agree with the following statement? “Salesforce is becoming increasingly complex to work with.”
Response summary: Two-thirds of respondents (66%) agree that Salesforce is becoming more complex.
What it means: Choosing Salesforce data security and management vendors that can accommodate complexity and scale will likely remain top-of-mind for Salesforce Architects vetting AppExchange solutions.
“Salesforce is becoming a richer and richer ecosystem. Ten years ago it was mostly on the platform, whereas today with the acquisitions of Informatica, Tableau, Slack that are now a part of the Salesforce ecosystem is why you have a very rich platform. The role of the architect is to analyze the pros and cons of all those components of the platform and select the one for the right needs.” – Sovan Bin, CTA, CEO of Odaseva
Question asked: Do you currently use an archiving tool?
Response summary: Almost two-thirds (62%) don’t have an archiving solution in place.
What it means: Organizations without an archiving plan may be missing out on valuable benefits of storing unused data off the platform. Archiving can speed up your Salesforce Org’s performance, support regulatory compliance, and streamline employee processes to make their jobs easier and improve customer service.
For more information: Read 6 Concepts to Archive Salesforce Data at Scale
As the Salesforce ecosystem continues to evolve, Salesforce Architects at large enterprises need purpose-built solutions for their complex Salesforce data security and management needs, including backup and restore, encryption, proving recoverability, and more.
Odaseva was built by Salesforce experts including CEO & Founder Sovan Bin, the first CTA in Europe, to solve challenges enterprises face when securing and managing Salesforce data. The Odaseva Enterprise Data Platform helps customers ensure business continuity and secure sensitive data so enterprises can scale, innovate, and realize the full potential of their Salesforce investment.
For more information, request a demo today.
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