As companies employing Salesforce continue to grow in business, managing ever-increasing volumes of data becomes a critical challenge. Large datasets can impact system performance, increase storage costs, and make compliance more difficult. This is where Salesforce Big Objects play an important role in a well-planned Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) strategy.
Rather than keeping all historical data in standard Salesforce objects, organizations can use Big Objects to retain massive amounts of data while preserving access for reporting, auditing, and compliance.
This blog explores the depth of Data Lifecycle Management in Salesforce, how Big Objects fit into the DLM process, the core benefits of using Big Objects as a Salesforce user, and how and why DataArchiva could be your business partner in establishing the DLM process.
Understanding Data Lifecycle Management
DLM is the process of managing data throughout its entire lifecycle—from creation to archival and eventual deletion (if necessary).
A typical Salesforce DLM strategy includes:
- Data creation
- Active usage
- Aging or reduced access
- Archiving
- Long-term retention
- Secure deletion
The objective is to ensure that only business-critical, actively used data remains in standard Salesforce objects while historical data is stored more efficiently.
How Big Objects Fit into Data Lifecycle Management
While Salesforce Data Lifecycle Management ensures data is stored, retained, archived, or deleted based on its business value and regulatory requirements, Salesforce Big Objects support this strategy by providing a scalable way to retain large volumes of historical data. All of this happens without affecting the performance of operational Salesforce objects.
1. Long-Term Historical Data Storage
Organizations often need to retain records for several years due to regulatory or business requirements. However, users rarely need to modify or frequently access this historical information.
Big Objects provide a scalable repository for storing this data while keeping production objects lean.
Example:
A financial services company may archive completed loan applications older than five years into Big Objects while maintaining access for future audits.
A Breakdown of Data Archiving Costs in Salesforce
2. Reducing Performance Bottlenecks
Large standard objects can lead to:
- Reports that query millions of records take longer to process.
- Users working with objects containing large datasets may experience delays when opening list views, applying filters, or navigating records.
- SOQL queries, Apex code, integrations, and automation that run against heavily populated standard objects may require more processing time.
- Large data volumes can impact multiple areas of the Salesforce platform, including dashboards, Lightning pages, search performance, and automation such as Flows and Apex triggers.
- Large operational datasets increase the complexity of indexing, optimization, and ongoing data management.
Moving older records into Big Objects reduces the size of operational tables, allowing Salesforce to perform more efficiently.
3. Supporting Compliance Requirements
Industries such as healthcare, banking, insurance, and manufacturing often have strict data retention policies.
Big Objects help organizations:
- Retain records for mandated periods.
- Preserve historical audit trails.
- Support regulatory investigations.
- Maintain immutable historical datasets.
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4. Cost Optimization
Although Big Objects still consume Salesforce resources depending on licensing and implementation, they are designed specifically for large-scale historical storage rather than expensive operational storage.
Using Big Objects as part of a broader lifecycle strategy can reduce pressure on primary Salesforce storage and delay costly storage expansions.
5. Supporting Historical Analytics
Historical business data often remains valuable for:
- Trend analysis.
- Forecasting.
- Customer behavior studies.
- Machine learning initiatives.
Instead of deleting older records, organizations can retain them within Big Objects for analytical use without cluttering operational objects.
Benefits of Using Salesforce Big Objects
Big Objects are known for storing high-volume data. But that’s not all! It also reduces the operational load on your Salesforce org and much more.
| Benefit | Impact |
|---|---|
| Massive scalability | Store billions of records |
| Performance improvement | Reduce load on operational objects |
| Long-term retention | Meet regulatory requirements |
| Historical reporting | Preserve valuable business intelligence |
| Cost management | Optimize active Salesforce storage usage |
Data Archiving Using Salesforce Big Objects
As a Salesforce-dedicated data archiving solution, DataArchiva is the only Native Salesforce Archiving solution that fully utilizes Big Objects for storage. It offers flexible custom archiving policies, zero external dependencies, audit-ready access to the data, and field-level encryption among other features.
- Automated archival policies: You can define and automate the archival policy as per your needs. DataArchiva allows flexible scheduling (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly) and multiple policy configurations.
- Policy-driven data movement: As mentioned above, only when certain triggers are fulfilled will the archival process start and stop.
- Relationship-aware archiving: All the parent-child relations and hierarchy stay intact even after the archiving. Object relationships do not break or get lost for standard as well as custom objects.
- More secure than external storage: While external storage options for data archiving are a great cost-effective alternative, Big Objects are still a preferred choice to keep the data within SFDC without losing the storage cost.
- Compliance-focused retention management: DataArchiva fully supports data retention policies, such as GDPR, HIPAA, the Right to Be Forgotten (RTBF), and purging.
Many enterprises use Big Objects for specific high-volume use cases while relying on dedicated archiving solutions for end-to-end lifecycle management.
Best Practices for Big Objects Archiving for DLM
To maximize the value of Big Objects and get the most out of your document lifecycle management strategy:
- Define clear data retention policies before implementation.
- Archive only inactive or historical records.
- Design index fields carefully for efficient querying.
- Keep frequently accessed records in standard objects.
- Combine Big Objects with automated archiving and governance policies.
- Regularly review storage growth and lifecycle policies.
Conclusion
Salesforce Big Objects are a powerful tool for organizations that need to retain massive volumes of historical data without compromising system performance. They support long-term retention, compliance, and historical analysis while helping reduce the burden on operational Salesforce objects.
Big Objects are only one component of a mature Data Lifecycle Management strategy. To get the best of Big Objects, organizations need automated archiving, intelligent retention policies, secure backup, and comprehensive governance, which should complement Big Objects with a dedicated solution such as DataArchiva.
