Organizations managing increasing volumes of Salesforce data often face performance issues, storage constraints, and strict compliance demands. Without proper management, inactive records accumulate, slowing down the system and inflating storage costs. That’s why following the right Salesforce data archiving best practices is key to staying efficient and cost-effective.
Instead of storing everything in your active org, archiving lets you move cold data to a secondary storage layer while keeping it accessible. It’s not about deleting, it’s about offloading the right data, at the right time, to the right place.
In this blog, we’ll break down why you need to archive, what type of data to archive, and how to do it the right way without impacting compliance or usability.
Why Archive Your Salesforce Data?
Archiving Salesforce data means moving older, less frequently accessed records out of your active org and into a secure, external storage system. This process helps declutter your live environment while still ensuring that historical data remains accessible when needed.
But why does this matter?
Because as your Salesforce usage grows, so does the data, much of which isn’t required for day-to-day operations. If left unmanaged, it leads to bloated storage, slower performance, higher costs, and potential compliance risks. Salesforce data archiving best practices help you stay in control by keeping your org clean, fast, and compliant.
Archiving plays a crucial role in two major areas: operational efficiency and data governance.
On the efficiency side, archiving:
- Improves performance by reducing the active data load, which keeps your org responsive and agile.
- Prevents disruptions in reporting, automation, and other processes that can be affected by storage limits or data clutter.
- Clears out outdated or irrelevant data that could otherwise skew analytics, reports, or decision-making.
From a compliance and security standpoint, archiving helps you:
- Retain critical legacy records outside of your primary Salesforce instance, ensuring they're available for audits or regulatory checks without burdening your system.
- Strengthen access control by reducing unnecessary user exposure to old data, aligning with security frameworks like the Principle of Least Privilege.
- Enhance your overall data resilience by supporting broader backup and disaster recovery plans.
Ultimately, archiving isn’t just about freeing up space. It’s about smartly managing your data lifecycle, keeping your Salesforce environment lean, secure, and ready for scale.
Reduce Cost, Stay Compliant & Unlock Superior Data Experience in Salesforce with DataArchiva External Archiving
5 Best Practices for Archiving Salesforce Data
A successful Salesforce data archiving strategy isn’t just about freeing up space; it’s about making your org smarter, faster, and fully compliant. Whether you’re scaling operations or managing strict data retention rules, here are the top five Salesforce data archiving best practices every admin should follow.
Define a Scalable Salesforce Data Archiving Policy
The foundation of any effective archiving process is a clear policy. Identify:
- What data qualifies as archive-worthy?
- How long should data stay in your active org?
- Industry-specific compliance requirements (like GDPR, HIPAA, etc.)
Using DataArchiva, you can create and automate these policies directly within Salesforce, ensuring consistent and compliant archival across business units.
Use Native Salesforce Archiving Tools Like Big Objects
Salesforce Big Objects allow you to store large volumes of historical data at a lower cost while keeping it inside the Salesforce platform. However, managing Big Objects on your own can be complex.
DataArchiva simplifies this by leveraging Big Objects for structured data archival, keeping everything native, seamless, and familiar for end users without requiring external dependencies. Learn more about the 5-star rated product on AppExchange!
Automate Your Salesforce Data Archival Process
Manually archiving records is inefficient and error-prone. One of the most critical Salesforce data archiving best practices is automation.
With DataArchiva, you can automate archival jobs based on business rules, data age, or custom triggers. It runs in the background with zero disruptions and ensures you never get caught off guard by storage limits.
Ensure Archived Data is Secure and Easily Accessible
Archiving doesn’t mean burying data; it means storing it smartly. Archived records should be both secure and easily retrievable, especially for audits or legal needs.
DataArchiva encrypts all archived data and makes it available directly within Salesforce via standard UI or API access, keeping usability and compliance intact.
Monitor Archived Data with Regular Audits and Reports
Your job isn’t done once the data is archived. One of the most overlooked Salesforce data archiving best practices is monitoring. You need visibility into:
- What’s been archived?
- Where it’s stored?
- Whether it meets compliance and retention goals?
A German RegTech Firm Migrates Salesforce Data Within a Week with DataArchiva
DataArchiva for Effective Salesforce Data Archiving
Designed to work within the Salesforce ecosystem, DataArchiva empowers you to offload massive volumes of unused or legacy data, without losing visibility, control, or compliance.
Native Salesforce Integration
DataArchiva integrates natively with Salesforce and leverages Big Objects to keep archived data within your CRM environment. The result? A familiar user experience without compromising system performance.
Automated Archiving to Any External Storage
Say goodbye to manual archiving. With automated archival jobs, you can move cold Salesforce data to your preferred storage: AWS, Azure, Heroku, GCP, on-prem, or any external system, based on custom schedules or data triggers.
Tailored Archiving & Purging Policies
Not all data ages the same. With custom archiving and purging rules, you can define exactly what gets archived and when, based on record age, activity levels, or compliance standards like HIPAA, GDPR, or SOX.
Instant Access from Within Salesforce
Worried about losing visibility? Don’t be. Archived records remain fully accessible within Salesforce, allowing your users to view and interact with them without switching tools or platforms.
Bulk Archiving with Object Relationship Integrity
Whether you’re archiving thousands or millions of records, DataArchiva preserves complex parent-child relationships, ensuring your data structure stays intact and usable post-archival.
Secure, Compliant, and Enterprise-Ready
DataArchiva delivers end-to-end encryption, role-based access control, and detailed audit logs to meet the most stringent compliance requirements. Your data is protected, accessible only to authorized users.
AI-Powered Global Search
Need to locate archived data fast? Use AI-powered search with natural language queries to find records instantly, no matter where they’re stored.
Make Your Salesforce Data Agentforce-Ready with DataArchiva
One-Click Data Restore
Archived data isn’t gone, it’s just resting. With instant restore capabilities, you can bring any record back into your live Salesforce org, complete with its original structure and dependencies.
Unified Reporting Across Live & Archived Data
Get the full picture. Build comprehensive reports and dashboards by combining archived and active Salesforce data for smarter business decisions.
Choose where and how your data is stored, cloud, on-prem, or hybrid, and retain complete ownership. No vendor lock-in. No hidden storage costs. Full control.
Salesforce Data Archiving Priorities
Before diving into implementation, it’s important to understand the core priorities that drive your archiving decisions. Aligning your Salesforce data archiving strategy with these areas ensures long-term success.
Storage and Limits
Hitting Salesforce data storage limits can slow down your org and force expensive storage add-ons. Archiving helps you stay ahead of capacity challenges while optimizing performance.
Usage Trends
Not all data is accessed daily. Understanding which objects and records are used less frequently helps identify archiving opportunities without disrupting operations.
Implications
Unmanaged data growth impacts system speed, user experience, and compliance risk. A proactive archiving approach can mitigate these issues before they become costly problems.
Conclusion
Salesforce data archiving is no longer a technical choice—it’s a strategic business imperative. Whether you’re trying to improve system performance, stay compliant, or avoid the rising cost of additional storage, archiving gives you the control you need over your growing data.
FAQs
The best practice for data archiving is to automate the archival of unused data based on defined policies while ensuring it's secure, accessible, and compliant. Tools like DataArchiva make this easy within Salesforce.
Yes, you can archive Salesforce data by moving inactive or historical records to external or lower-cost storage without deleting them. Solutions like DataArchiva help archive data natively, securely, and with full access.
There’s no hard cap, but archived data still counts toward storage unless moved to optimized storage or external systems.
Let DataArchiva Handle All Your Salesforce Data Management Woes!
