Data loss is a challenge most organizations are familiar with, yet few know how to effectively manage. According to Security Magazine, 93% of organizations have suffered a data-related business interruption, 60% of which report permanently losing data. Whether it be a technical vulnerability or improper human activity, either malicious or unintentional, organizations are constantly threatened.
Businesses are built on data, which makes the threat of data loss a major concern. And data stored in Salesforce is no exception. Many business and IT leaders are not aware that Salesforce does not automatically backup and protect data and metadata. Although the platform provides state-of-the-art infrastructure and guarantees up-time, it does not provide an adequate Salesforce data backup strategy to protect crucial information, such as customizations, integrations, reports, records, files, and custom code.
In fact, Salesforce has a shared responsibility policy that states you are responsible for backups, restores, and security policies around your users. This exposes organizations to potential loss of data which can threaten business continuity, cause legal headaches, and lead to cybersecurity threats. Therefore, you need to develop additional, routine data backup and restore practices as part of their overall data management and security model.
Why You Need a Salesforce Data Backup and Recovery Strategy
According to recent Flosum research, 83% of individuals utilize a data backup and archive tool within Salesforce to optimize their Salesforce data backup strategy. The reasons for this investment include:
Data Loss Due to User Error
To err is human. Even with the best of intentions, mistakes happen – settings are sometimes incorrect, files can be accidentally deleted, and scheduled backups are forgotten. Organizations must expect these events to happen and prepare for them.
As a platform, Salesforce does its best to ensure that it will not lose your data due to user error. However, it is still susceptible to these sorts of issues, and unfortunately, one simple unintentional mistake can trigger thousands of records to be deleted. If you count on your recycle bin to restore your data in case of a data loss, you must know that it only holds deleted records for only 15 days and you can delete more records than the Salesforce recycle bin can hold. The Salesforce data recovery cost is $10,000 per request, will take weeks, and there’s no guarantee of 100% Salesforce data recovery.
Having a trustworthy Salesforce data backup service must be a top priority in your strategy. Fortunately, Flosum Backup & Archive is native to Salesforce and protects this data out of the box.
Security and Compliance
C-level executives are often held responsible for failing to employ and enforce adequate cybersecurity policies to protect their company data. The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) disclosure-related charges against software company SolarWinds and its CISO are a game-changer. The enforcement action signals that the SEC espouses a broader view of accountability, one that extends beyond the certifying officers – namely, the CEO and CFO – to the rest of the C-suite and other senior leaders possessing and providing information and insights affecting public reports.
Therefore, a dedicated Salesforce data backup and recovery app is key to reducing compliance risk and meeting regulations like GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, SEC 17a-4, and others. It should deliver automated reporting to meet the constantly evolving industry regulatory mandates. This will make the job of existing compliance managers much easier when inquiries of compliance are received and considered.
Mass Data Import
Another primary reason why you need data backup services is if you use a mass data loader. Oftentimes, a mistake can be made when modifying records using a data loader, sometimes resulting in record and field values being wiped off forever. And, your Salesforce recycle bin only holds so many records for a limited time period.
Salesforce does offer native data and metadata backup options; however, these require tremendous manual effort and are not automated.
Restoring Your Salesforce Data and Metadata After a Loss
Your Salesforce data backup strategy is only as good as your ability to restore. A faster RPO (Recovery Point Objective) ensures that your organization is ready to bounce back from any disaster almost immediately. Together, data backup and restore are key aspects of any enterprise’s disaster recovery strategy. Restoring data after a loss can often be stressful, and a well-proven way is to regularly test both your data backup and recovery to identify any errors which can then be addressed immediately.
Accelerated Speed of Data Restoration
When data is either lost or even temporarily inaccessible, business slows down and costs go up. Retailers, for example, may struggle to complete transactions, recognize cross-sell and up-sell product and service opportunities, and manage their own employees. It’s imperative that any data loss or inaccessibility be addressed and rectified quickly and effectively. A fast RTO (Recovery Time Objective) ensures quick recoveries in any situation. Relying on Salesforce without an effective additional line of protection is taking chances and risking growth and profitability.
7 Data Backup and Recovery Strategies
1. Know Salesforce’s Backup Responsibilities… and Yours
From a data management perspective, many business and IT leaders are not aware of the differing responsibilities between Salesforce and its users. They may not know that Salesforce does not back up and protect data and metadata or that the platform does not protect crucial information, such as customizations, integrations, reports, records, files, and custom code.
When it comes to protecting data, Salesforce is responsible for configuring, managing, and securing applications, network controls, and physical infrastructure. However, it is the user’s responsibility to support their Salesforce data backup strategy by managing and protecting all data stored, backups, devices, accounts, data governance, and access management. Users must understand these differing responsibilities and govern themselves accordingly.
2. Know Your Recovery Point Objective
Disasters can hit anytime and for a multitude of reasons. For this reason, it is important to clearly understand your Recovery Point Objective (RPO) as part of your Salesforce data backup strategy. RPO refers to the amount of data you as a company can afford to lose before it impacts business operations. How much data, for example, can a manufacturer afford to lose before their processes come to a halt and they cannot ship their product? How much data can a services corporation lose before they are unable to distinguish between their customers and provide the right level of support?
Organizations must determine whether their backup schedule is sufficient to recover after a disaster. Ideally, these organizations should choose a solution that offers high-frequency backups, preferably daily.
3. Know Your Recovery Time Objective
Recovery Time Objective (RTO), a key part of an effective Salesforce data backup strategy, refers to the timeframe that data must be restored after a data loss or corruption. This is the cornerstone of your business continuity plan and goes a long way in determining your Salesforce backup strategy. It is also a piece of mind for retailers, manufacturers, service, and other organizations who may not be able to always escape the possibility of data loss or inaccessibility but have a plan and timeline in place for when they can expect their business to be back up and running.
4. Backup from Any Point in Time
“Any point in time” data recovery activities give users the flexibility to utilize any set of data backed up at any point in time. This makes RPO and RTO objectives much easier to achieve. High-performing Salesforce data backup strategies should allow businesses to safely put back data exactly as it was before an incident. Therefore, an automated Salesforce data backup service with regular, reliable automated backups is fundamental to achieving that.
5. Recover Salesforce Data and Metadata
Salesforce data can’t be restored without first restoring metadata. Failure to backup metadata will only provide you with a partial backup since data cannot be restored to fields that do not exist. You need to back up and restore your metadata as an attachment, in addition to your data, to support your Salesforce data backup strategy, or else it can be cumbersome to rebuild relationships between Salesforce data objects. Thus, the key is to develop a routine data backup and restore strategy through automated salesforce data recovery and backup of your data and your metadata.
6. Ensure Continuous Backup
Backing up your Salesforce data is difficult. To minimize your data loss, you need a solution that regularly takes automated backups. Salesforce data backup apps not only make the whole process of automated backups pain-free but also locate and recover lost data at accelerated speeds. Automated backups also allow you to maintain RPO agreements. Salesforce recommends developing a routine automated data backup for both data and metadata.
7. Be a Stickler for Security
When you manage data backups, insisting on a high-security infrastructure is an obvious no-brainer to help you stay ahead of your security and regulatory compliance requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, and other regional requirements. Expect to bring your own security key. Expect highly customizable permissions. Flosum openly shares our architecture, gives customers the permissions they need to see their data, and insists that customers bring their own encryption key.
Summary: How Flosum Can Help
As part of a highly successful Salesforce data backup strategy, Flosum Backup & Archive allows you to safely, securely, and reliably automate your Salesforce data and metadata backups and archives with the frequency that your organization needs to operate effectively.
It also offers clear and upfront pricing from the start. No surprise fees or upcharges – everything is included for all users. In fact, during 2024, Flosum Backup & Archive is currently being offered at a 50% discount over Own Data’s current contract pricing.
Key benefits:
- Backup and restore without manual steps: Backup and restore data automatically to ensure a predictable, full backup with simple restore processes.
- Easily filter and archive Salesforce records: Speed up your Salesforce org while safely storing records for compliance requirements. Easily filter to find what you need to restore.
- Choose your own data hosting options: Organizations can host their own backup data in their own way. This includes on the cloud, self-hosted, on a public cloud (such as AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure), or on-premise behind your firewall for the ultimate in compliance.
- Manage automation: Flosum allows you to turn off Workflows, Flows, Process Builder, and Validation rules with a quick click. Meet your RTO, without any changes on restore and with no manual steps.
- Build robust filters to select data: Easily find records to restore from your backup and archive.
Whether you’re at the beginning of your data backup journey or are looking to switch providers, we recommend talking to our experienced Flosum Salesforce Architect to guide you through your Salesforce data security needs.
