While software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms like Salesforce offer undeniable benefits like scalability and cost savings, data loss is still a very real risk. It can happen for many reasons, such as human error, and integration gone awry, or a data breach. Being proactive about protecting your Salesforce data is the first step to avoiding downtime and maintaining functionality.
Salesforce is a widely used SaaS platform, which operates through public cloud resources, including storage. Salesforce Cloud, built on AWS, operates on a shared responsibility model where the customer is responsible for protecting their data living within the platform.
Having a solid backup strategy in place for backing up and restoring Salesforce data is crucial for organizations that rely on this customer relationship management (CRM) platform or businesses that manage personal or sensitive information. Learn all you need to know about backing up and restoring Salesforce data in this comprehensive guide.
What Is Salesforce Backup & Recovery?
Salesforce data backup solutions safeguard Salesforce Cloud data from deletion, corruption, ransomware, and internal attacks. They provide CRM owners/managers, data compliance managers, technology admins, business owners, and customers with a sense of security and peace of mind.
The dedicated protection from a Salesforce backup and restore solution fills native Salesforce data recovery gaps with robust tools and controls. This allows users to secure, protect, and quickly recover data with accuracy and scalability.
There are several types of Salesforce backup solutions available for organizations to consider. The ideal solution will depend on your company’s unique needs. The two most common backup options include:
- Incremental backup: This type of backup only saves new or modified files since the last backup. While this approach saves time and storage space, it may limit the ability to restore older file versions.
- Full backup: This involves creating backups of all files, regardless of whether they have changed since the last backup. This process requires more time and storage space, but it provides a complete copy of all your data.
Both complete and incremental backups are crucial for your business operations. Incremental backups help you quickly address any potential issues with your Salesforce org. After performing a complete data backup, switching to incremental backups will save time and ensure you always have access to the most recent data following a disaster. This means your Salesforce data backup process will be fast, allowing you to revert data changes within minutes of a data corruption or other adverse data event.
Why Do I Need a Salesforce Backup?
Many businesses rely on Salesforce as a service provider to house critical IP, customer information, and business insights. Keeping this data secure is crucial to business success and preventing crippling aftermaths.
However, Salesforce and other SaaS are highly susceptible to data loss and corruption, particularly from human error like accidental deletions or overwrites. Unplanned data loss can be costly for businesses, often translating to revenue loss. There’s another consequence, besides the immediate negative financial repercussions. Because customers entrust businesses with their data, expecting them to safeguard it, data outages and breaches can severely tarnish a company's reputation. Therefore, a reliable backup and recovery solution for Salesforce data is critical.
What Are the Common Risks of Data Loss in Salesforce?
While data loss can be attributed to several sources, the majority is human-error-related. With the human element factor, data can be unintentionally deleted or lost through user error, routine updates to the environment, or corruption stemming from third-party AppExchange integrations and add-ons. Companies must employ data security and recovery protocols to protect against malicious and unintentional data loss events.
Data theft and cybercrime are also realistic threats to an organization’s livelihood. Many believe cybercrimes are committed by hackers breaching security walls from unknown locations. However, data shows that insider threats make up around 60% of cyberattacks. In 2023, the average cost of a data breach in the United States was $9.48 million, which is a 0.4% increase from 2022. The fallout of a data breach extends beyond blows to a company’s bottom line as it often results in long-term impact on business continuity, operations, and public perception.
Who Is Responsible for Backing Up Salesforce Data?
The shared responsibility model divides data protection responsibilities between Salesforce (the cloud service provider) and the organization using their services. The purpose of this model is to ensure both parties are doing their part in securing data.
Salesforce’s responsibilities include:
- Infrastructure security: Salesforce's’ responsibilities begin with securing the underlying infrastructure that supports the platform. This involves managing and performing physical security protocols for data centers, server security, and network safeguards. This aims to limit vulnerabilities of the foundational software used on the platform.
- Platform availability: Salesforce is responsible for ensuring its platform is consistently available to users. Specific measures are in place to guarantee uptime and protect against unexpected outages.
- Platform maintenance and updates: Salesforce conducts routine updates, patches, and platform maintenance in a way that doesn’t compromise user data.
The responsibilities of the user include:
- Data management: The data that’s input onto the Salesforce platform is the responsibility of the user. IT admins and other authorized users are tasked with ensuring data accuracy, integrity, and relevance.
- Data backup: Individual backups of data are the responsibility of the user even though the data is on Salesforce’s platform. As a result, users should prioritize regularly backing up their Salesforce data either manually or using a third-party solution.
- Data security: Users are responsible for keeping their data secure from unauthorized parties and other threats by using strong passwords, managing user permissions, and implementing two-factor authentication processes.
- Third-party integration management: Users may wish to integrate Salesforce with third-party platforms and other tools. If so, they are responsible for confirming these integrations do not cause data compromises. Users must vet all third-party tools and examine their security measures to ensure proper integration protocols are being met.
- Regulatory compliance: Regulated industries require compliance with relevant regulations applying to data. Users conducting business in these industries are responsible for ensuring their Salesforce data meets strict requirements through specific data storage, management, and protection measures.
In short, the responsibility of backing up Salesforce data falls on the shoulders of the organization using the platform. Therefore, users must be proactive and protect their data with a solution that includes backup and recovery, archiving, data management, and governance.
Does Salesforce Automatically Back Up Data?
Salesforce provides its users with tools for backing up their data. However, most of the native tools offered by Salesforce are manual and will only export your data, meaning they will not restore data if it gets lost.
The exception to this is Salesforce Backup, which is their most comprehensive backup solution. This paid service automatically backs up and restores your data.
Salesforce offers several other native tools.
Data backup:
- Data export service: With this tool, users can perform a manual or scheduled backup of their data via the Salesforce UI, which will organize data into a set of CSV files.
- Data loader: Salesforce’s data loader requires manual steps but gives users complete control over exporting their data.
- Report export: This tool offers a simple way for users to export their data with a user-friendly interface.
Metadata backup:
- Change sets: Users can use this tool to copy metadata from one Salesforce org to another.
- Sandbox refresh: Refreshing a sandbox provides a fresh copy of your production org.
- Force.com migration tool: This more advanced tool can be used to migrate changes from one org to another.
What Are the Limitations of Salesforce’s Native Backup Solutions?
Native Salesforce backup options have limitations. Data recovery is not guaranteed, and the process can be very manual.
Other limitations include:
- No API to export and restore personal reports and dashboards
- Does not backup encrypted field types and certain metadata
- Users may not have adequate permissions to restore backups or access backed-up data
How Long Is Deleted Data Stored in Salesforce?
According to Salesforce, deleted data is only stored for 15 days. Deleted data can be permanently removed from Salesforce before the 15 days.
Data Restoration Opportunities: The Salesforce Recycle Bin
Salesforce’s Recycle Bin is a list view that allows users to sort and filter items. The Salesforce Recycle Bin feature is accessed in Content Builder.
What Is the Limitation of the Recycle Bin in Salesforce?
Salesforce's Recycle Bin has a 15-day retention limit, after which deleted data is permanently lost. The Recycle Bin can only contain 25 times a user's MB storage capacity as records. Additionally, only administrators and users with the Modify All Data permission can restore deleted data. Other users must contact them for assistance.
How Do I Recover Lost Data in Salesforce?
Accidental deletion of critical data within Salesforce can have significant repercussions. Fortunately, there are ways for users to recover lost records, including:
The Recycle Bin
As a Salesforce admin, utilizing the recycle bin in Salesforce is the simplest way to restore lost records. Deleted records typically reside in the recycle bin for 15 days, though the duration may vary based on the object type. After 15 days, your organization's Salesforce administrator needs to request recovery.
However, it is feasible to recover records from the recycle bin even after 15 days through a process called Imprecise Nullification (IN). If the recycle bin has been emptied before the 15-day limit, recovery is not possible, and users will need to explore alternative restoration methods.
Data Export Service
Another option is the Salesforce Data Export service. This is available every month for all users, while Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited edition users can back up their data weekly. This is a manual process, and you only have 48 hours to download all your files. Once they disappear, they cannot be retrieved. Note that all data export jobs are queued according to size. The process could also take more than a week to complete, as every object is in a separate CSV file. As soon as you queue up a new data export, the previous files are removed, even if you’re still within the 48-hour download window.
Organization Restore
If weekly backups are unavailable, Salesforce clients can request an Organization Restore. In this situation, Salesforce will assign a team of engineers to retrieve the most recent backup of the desired organization. Although Organization Restore services are costly, they are often the only feasible option for users unable to access Salesforce backups.
Third-Party Solutions
For Salesforce customers who require fast and effective backup and recovery of production and sandbox environments, a dedicated third-party protection solution offers robust capabilities for cost-effective and scalable recovery.
What Are the Key Features of Third-Party Salesforce Backup Tools?
Third-party solutions provide organizations that rely on Salesforce with an added layer of protection for their data. To be effective, these solutions must include the following features:
Access to Backups
Salesforce is one of the most reliable SaaS applications on the market. Even still, it’s not exempt from experiencing outages or service disruptions. Storing data outside of Salesforce ensures your data will still be accessible in the event of an outage, allowing businesses to maintain continuity.
Additionally, centralized access to backups is also a key feature of third-party solutions. This enables users to manage multiple Salesforce production organizations from a single dashboard, as well as add backup services to new organizations.
Flexible Backup Frequencies
A long-standing best practice for data backup is that it should be performed at least once a day. Having the option to back up Salesforce data more than daily can be beneficial, especially if data changes frequently. With the ability to set granular backup schedules and retention settings, users are better equipped to make large-scale changes. With this feature, users can easily revert their data if something goes wrong.
Ability to Back up Metadata
Salesforce metadata plays a significant role in how users interact with the platform. Therefore, metadata should be backed up and easily retrievable should it get lost, altered, or deleted. Despite its importance, metadata is not always included in Salesforce backup solutions. This means user profiles, permissions, reports, and dashboards would be lost.
In addition to backing up and restoring metadata, third-party solutions back up files, attachments, and custom objects. This ensures the unstructured data associated with your business processes are protected.
Unlimited Backup Storage
For many organizations that rely on Salesforce, data volumes will grow rapidly. This translates to an increasing need for data backups. Unlimited backup storage is a desirable feature that third-party solutions may offer.
Proactive Monitoring
It is common for Salesforce environments to experience integration, batch updates, cleanups, and code deployments simultaneously. This can make it difficult for users to spot abnormalities themselves. Furthermore, malicious activity is often designed to be undetectable, meaning users may not spot it at all.
Third-party Salesforce backup solutions proactively monitor for data loss or corruption. Users are alerted when abnormalities are detected, which allows them to restore data much faster.
Analyze Backup Data
Information about the point in time when data was last correct is crucial for businesses. Third-party analysis features allow users to see how an object changes over time, pinpointing the proper backup from which to restore, ensuring the right data gets back into Salesforce.
Ongoing Support
When it comes to data incidents, there are no days off, weekends, or holidays. If an event occurs that results in loss of data, the pressure is on to promptly return to normal business operations. Third-party solutions should match the urgency of the user by providing 24/7 support and quick response times.
User-Friendly Interface
While the technologies involved with data backup and recovery are complicated, user interfaces do not need to be. Third-party solutions make it easy for users to back up their Salesforce data with ease of use and uncomplicated installation.
Granular Recovery Capabilities
By their very nature, SaaS applications like Salesforce are built to help companies capture and organize data changes in real time. While some solutions may allow you to restore a selected object to a selected point in time, they may force you to restore all the records for that object, potentially undoing some desired
changes. Or they may allow you to restore specific records, but force you to restore all the fields. Be sure that your backup solution allows you to restore not just specific records, but specific fields with unwanted changes, so you don’t overwrite good data when trying to fix bad data.
What Are the Benefits of a Backup and Recovery tool for Salesforce data ?
Having a backup solution in place for restoring data can benefit your organization in several ways, such as:
Protect Against Data Loss
The most obvious benefit of having a Salesforce backup solution is being protected if data becomes lost. Should your primary Salesforce org experience abnormalities or an outage for any reason, you will still have access to your data with a reliable backup solution. With a Salesforce backup solution in place, businesses can continue to operate smoothly even in the face of unexpected events.
Reduce Downtime
Outages due to attacks or mistakes can produce crippling downtimes for organizations. The proper backup and recovery tools can reduce the time it takes companies to return to normal business operations. In the event your Salesforce org goes down, your most recent backup can restore your data to before the incident, minimizing disruptions and keeping the wheels turning.
Increase Efficiency
Manual data entry can be time-consuming and feel like a full-time job. A proper Salesforce backup solution reduces the need for manual data entry tasks (like restitching object relationships), increasing efficiency. With a solution that automatically exports data, there is no need to waste time re-entering data manually.
Maintain Compliance
Maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements is much easier with a third-party Salesforce backup solution, whether you must comply with GDPR, HIPAA, or others depending on your industry. A majority of these regulations require organizations to know where and how their data is being stored so that they only retain the necessary data.
How Can Own Help with Backing Up & Restoring Salesforce Data?
Own Recover for Salesforce is for organizations using Salesforce who need to protect important data from loss or corruption. The highly secure, easy-to-set-up, always-available backup and recovery solution ensures data resilience and simplifies compliance. Unlike other solutions, we are the market leaders because of our continuous, frequency-based, and on-demand data backup capabilities; proactive monitoring for data loss and corruption; precise data repair capabilities; platform security; backup export options; and stellar 24/7 customer support. Our Recover product is a one-stop shop for your compliance and data recovery needs.
Backup
Protect Salesforce data with automated backups that are complete, secure, compliant, and readily accessible, even if Salesforce isn’t.
Restore
Recover the right data quickly, with proactive notifications, granular visibility into what’s changed, and easy-to-use restore tools.
Extend
Leverage backups to meet your requirements for analytics, audits, and compliance.
Operate
Benefit from quick onboarding, responsive support experts, and predictable pricing for fast and ongoing value.
Contact us for more information about our Salesforce data backup and restore solution and pricing.
