Salesforce plays a critical role in managing customer relationships and ensuring your business can grow efficiently. But, utilizing the world’s #1 CRM platform effectively comes with understanding and managing your Salesforce storage limits. This way, you can avoid performance issues and mounting storage costs, which can ultimately stunt your business initiatives.
So how do you manage Salesforce storage limits while ensuring access to important data? Learn more in this article.
What Are the Data Storage Limits in Salesforce?
Salesforce storage limits vary depending on the edition of your platform. Typically, Salesforce allocates a set amount of data storage per user license, with additional storage available for purchase. Most editions have 10GB Salesforce storage limits. Individual users may have a 120 MB allocation if you have a higher-tier license.
Salesforce storage limits apply to records such as accounts, contacts, and opportunities. File storage is managed separately and is used for attachments, documents, and content. Once you learn the Salesforce storage limits, you can implement strategies to optimize your Salesforce environment.
Strategies to Manage Salesforce Storage Limits Effectively
Salesforce storage limits are strictly enforced. Once you reach set thresholds, you will encounter error messages or may be unable to create new records in your Sandbox. Staying at or near Salesforce storage limits can create other challenges as well, such as performance issues and errors within the platform.
Aside from that, holding onto data you don’t need or aren’t using can leave your org cluttered and disorganized. The good news is that there are several ways to stay below Salesforce storage limits and ensure you’ve got access to critical data when you need it. Here are five tips on how to manage Salesforce storage limits effectively.
Data Archiving
Archiving historical and redundant data can clean up your Salesforce org and keep you within established storage limits. However, you need to make sure your archived data remains accessible, as losing access altogether can disrupt employee workflows and reduce efficiency.
Routinely clean up your Salesforce instance to get rid of redundant or obsolete information. Identify any duplicate or incomplete records that are no longer relevant to your day-to-day activities. You can implement automated rules to review and delete unnecessary data, which saves time and assists in keeping your org current.
External archiving tools can help you deal with data that must be retained but doesn’t require constant access in Salesforce. These tools store your data securely while ensuring users can still access it when needed.
Using Storage-Optimized Apps
The Salesforce AppExchange is a great resource for finding applications to optimize your storage. These tools can compress your data or assist with long-term data management, which reduces storage usage without impacting performance.
Data models and dependencies in Salesforce are often complex. Freeing up extra storage space within Salesforce won’t do you much good if you inadvertently choose a tool that interferes with key data relationships.
With that in mind, make sure you choose a data archiving tool that will preserve these relationships and the integrity of your data structure. Look for solutions that provide robust support for Salesforce’s unique data architecture. Salesforce data models and dependencies can be intricate and unique to the platform, so your archiving tool must efficiently manage both the data and its relationships.
External Data Management
External storage solutions like AWS or Google Cloud can be a good fit for file-heavy operations. These platforms can store large volumes of data, including documents and images. Moving the information to a cloud-based storage solution can reduce the load on your Salesforce environment and help you stay organized.
Incorporating external data management will become a necessity as your business grows. Don’t wait to make the move. Proactively incorporating external storage into your data management strategy can help you promote overall information accessibility and accuracy while also giving you the resources necessary to scale your business.
Monitor Your Storage
Salesforce offers some great built-in tools to help you monitor your storage usage. Regularly check these metrics to ensure you’re aware of potential issues before they interfere with your daily operations.
To check your current storage usage, simply navigate to the “Setup” menu and enter “storage” into the Quick Find box. Next, click “Storage Usage.” At a glance, you can learn more about your current storage usage trends and determine whether you are approaching your limit.
If you want to unlock the full potential of your historical data, consider integrating a third-party solution into your Salesforce environment. Our Discover tool is a great option. It uses time-series backups to provide a secure, scalable data service.
Optimize Data Retention Policies
Do you have clear rules governing what data is retained, archived, or deleted? You can’t expect your employees to support effective data management if they don’t have clear guidelines regarding what information to keep and what to delete. Review your current rules about data management so you can check that they are clear and easy to follow.
It’s also important that your team can stick to your new data management setup once it’s established. One way you can help ensure this is by giving them tools that make it easy and simple to navigate. It's essential to have the ability to unarchive data when needed, while effectively managing all dependencies within the data model. However, some tools make this process challenging for users, so it is important to prioritize finding a tool with this ability.
Simplify Data Archiving With Own
Managing your Salesforce storage limits ensures that your organization is empowered for growth. With Own Archive, your team can confidently customize and automate Salesforce data archiving, trusting that your unique storage, performance, and data accessibility needs are fulfilled.
