This blog was originally posted on Salesforce.org, and can be found here.
For nonprofits, digital transformation is increasingly necessary to survival. For many nonprofits, the first step in this transformation begins by centralizing data that’s scattered across multiple systems.
By storing data in Salesforce.org’s Nonprofit Cloud for example, nonprofits can provide employees, donors, and volunteers with connected experiences across communication channels. In many instances, nonprofits rely on spreadsheets, manual workflows, approvals, and reporting that can create information silos and slow the critical work of program delivery. But with Nonprofit Cloud, organizations manage all this within Salesforce to gain a full view of their work, their constituents, and their impact — all in one place.
Once you have all of this data aggregated in a single platform, having a way to protect all of this information becomes that much more important.
Who's responsible for SaaS data?
Although there are many advantages to moving to the cloud, like scalability, cost savings, and customization, there is also one big consequence of housing all of your data in the cloud: you’re responsible for protecting it.
You might be thinking, “my SaaS data is protected because it’s in the cloud.” The truth is, though, most SaaS applications like Salesforce require shared responsibility for keeping data safe. That means you can count on Salesforce to ensure the security and integrity of the platform, but as a client, you are responsible for the data you put into it, and who you allow to access it.
What causes SaaS data loss?
There’s no doubt that cloud software has made significant strides in data security and threat protection. Salesforce in particular guarantees 99.9+% uptime, or system reliability. Still though, as companies’ reliance on SaaS applications increases, many are seeing a corresponding uptick in data corruption, data overwrites, deletion by malicious attacks, and advanced threats like cyberattacks and ransomware.
And although major data breaches tend to get all of the headlines, not all data loss comes from nefarious sources. On the contrary, the majority of incidents continue to be innocent errors. According to Gartner, 99% of cloud security failures and resulting data loss will be the customer’s fault through 2025. We see a similar trend within the Salesforce platform specifically. Human error is the leading cause of data loss within the Salesforce ecosystem, making up just less than half of all incidents.
How can nonprofits protect their data?
Safeguarding essential data and sustaining business continuity requires automated cloud-to-cloud data protection. This modern approach detects and alerts you to data anomalies, safeguards data and metadata with complete data backups, and makes precision repair of data problems effortless.
We encourage you to explore Salesforce AppExchange partner solutions, such as Own. Over 7,000 customers recognize the value of taking a proactive approach to data loss identification and protection, including many nonprofits, like The Michael J. Fox Foundation.
As the largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s disease research in the world, The Michael J. Fox Foundation uses Salesforce.org’s Nonprofit Cloud for donor stewardship, as well as engaging the Parkinson’s community and potential clinical research study participants. The team also trusts Own to protect their mission-critical data.
Click the link below to learn more about Own.
