Salesforce Data Backup Best Practices: Your Go-to Guide

Data is definitely the most valuable commodity a Salesforce organization can possess. But due to the nature of ever-evolving online attacks, it’s impossible to guarantee that the data will never be lost. Businesses of all sizes can easily fall victim to cyberattacks and sensitive data losses. Although larger organizations are more susceptible to data loss due to their massive databases, even the smaller companies aren’t entirely immune to losing data.

A single data breach in a Salesforce enterprise can result in millions of lost records and company devaluations of up to 75%. Also worth noting is that though Fortune 500 companies may weather the storm, smaller businesses may never recover from such data losses without the proper protocols in place. Now such data loss can occur for a multitude of reasons, ranging from hacker attacks to human errors.

Backing up Salesforce data is an ideal way to tide over such data losses. But if your organization has not properly backed up data, recovery can be costly, time-consuming, & seemingly impossible; which can have seriously detrimental consequences. The only way to fully protect your company is to regularly backup the data so you can fully recover in case of data loss. Here are some important things to ask yourself before creating a Salesforce data backup strategy:

  • What data do I need to backup so it is available right away if an incident of data loss occurs?
  • Where will I store the data records?
  • How often will my data backup occur?
  • What compliance requirements do I need to follow with my data backups?
  • Who is responsible for ensuring the security, encryption, and success of these data backups?
  • How often will I test my backups?

After you have answered all the above-mentioned questions, the next step is to understand the best practices involved in Salesforce data backup. Even though the concept of data backup is quite simple, it still is one that many organizations have trouble implementing. It can either be due to lack of resources, personnel, or even time. Below we discuss some of the important best practices that all Salesforce customers should be aware of.

Use Remote Storage

Backing up the Salesforce data on-site can still pose imminent danger. If the data is lost because the entire system is compromised or if there is a natural disaster that compromises the entire facility, then it is pretty sure that the data backed up on-site will also be compromised; making the entire process of data backup redundant. Due to this, it is recommended that data backups should be stored in an off-site location, be it another physical location or in the cloud. The bottom line is, it is important to back up the data both online and offline.

Consider Retention Span

Before implementing a data backup strategy, it is vital to consider how long each data backup will be retained. Since keeping every backup forever isn’t feasible due to storage constraints, most backup solutions offer a series of retention schedules. These include keeping hourly and daily backups for a week, weekly backups for a month, & monthly backups for a few months or even years. It is also recommended to know your specific industry’s data retention standards & requirements before choosing the solution.

Schedule Frequent Backups

Having current, up-to-date data backups is essential for the continuity of the business. After determining the retention span, always set up the schedule according to which the Salesforce data will be backed up. It can be hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly; based on the type of your business. To ensure that data backups aren’t missed, it’s a best practice to automate these backups. You can also choose to perform either a full backup or an incremental one, based on your unique business needs.

Schedule Frequent Backups

Always Encrypt Backups

If your Salesforce data backups are not properly encrypted, they could easily be compromised if the data is stolen, misplaced, or jeopardized in some way. For this reason, encrypting the data backups is one of the most important data backup best practices. Not only does it add an extra layer of security to the entire process, it also guarantees users peace of mind that the Salesforce data is secure in the event that the backup has to be used for disaster recovery.

Determine and Comply with Retention Requirements

Another thing to keep in mind are the data backup retention requirements that your Salesforce organization must comply with, depending upon the type of industry. In this new age of data privacy laws, like GDPR and HIPPA, enterprises must know which backup retention requirements apply to their business. These privacy laws govern what data has to be backed up and for how long, which data is to be deleted and when, & more such things. Therefore it is best to comply with these retention requirements, especially when dealing with highly sensitive data, like protected health information or payment card data.

 

Follow the 3-2-1 Rule

Perhaps the most popular best practice for Salesforce data backup is the 3-2-1 backup rule. According to this rule, relying upon a single backup source is not sufficient. Instead organizations should store their backups in more than one storage location for added security. To be more specific, it says to keep 3 copies of the data on 2 different storage mediums with 1 off-site storage solution. Using the 3-2-1 backup strategy ensures that the data is always backed up and available for recovery no matter the situation.

3-2-1 Rule

Let DataArchiva Backup be your Salesforce Data Backup & Recovery Partner 

To make the Salesforce data backup process seamless for users, we have recently launched a solution called DataArchiva Backup into the market. DataArchiva Backup is a simple data backup & recovery application that is tailor-made to support all forms of Salesforce solutions like the Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and other custom-built Salesforce solutions. This highly scalable application prevents critical business data from all sorts of data security threats and offers a seamless restoration option as well.

Users can easily set up the application themselves and schedule their backups periodically or carry out manual backups whenever they desire. Using it’s full and incremental data backup services, Salesforce customers can easily overcome their fear of losing data. This cost-effective & easy-to-use solution also encrypts the backups thereby offering additional security. Aided with the relatively easy backup & restoration services offered by DataArchiva Backup, businesses can easily meet their Salesforce data backup requirements.

To know more about the solution, please get in touch with us. You can also schedule a free demo to understand DataArchiva Backup’s functionalities in more detail.

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DataArchiva offers three powerful applications through AppExchange including Native Data Archiving powered by BigObjects, External Data Archiving using 3rd-party Cloud/On-prem Platforms, and Data & Metadata Backup & Recovery for Salesforce. For more info, please get in touch with us at [email protected]
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CEPTES has been a pure-play Salesforce platform-focused company since 2010. We are product magicians as well as Salesforce consulting whizzes with 1000+ customers across the world. DataArchiva is CEPTES’s flagship application listed on AppExchange
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