Backing up data is the most basic and even the best practice of any IT system because lost or irrecoverable data can be a significant threat for businesses. It could face severe disruption of operations that it can hardly afford. Organizations of all sizes, shapes, and types have some data backup systems to ensure business continuity. As data volumes keep multiplying at an astronomical rate and most companies are handling Big Data, the importance of protecting all kinds of data and making it accessible whenever required is the top priority of all organizations, including those that use Salesforce enterprise applications.
Data loss is inevitable not only because of various cyber threats with malicious intent that are increasing rapidly and becoming more threatening, but it can also happen due to bad code, migration errors, and data overwrites. Whether intentional or nor any damage to data that renders it inaccessible, temporarily or permanently, is just not acceptable by any organization. To avoid any disaster, it is essential to stay prepared to cope with any eventualities to ensure no harm is done to data. If you had been wondering why backup your Salesforce data? You have already got the answer.
Need for Salesforce data backup
A solid data backup and recovery plan will ensure that the Salesforce data remains well protected and keeps the business up and running by overcoming data loss threats to theft, accident, or human error. If you are still not convinced about the need to backup Salesforce data, then the reasons given below should help to clear your doubts, if any.
You cannot rule out the possibility of losing Salesforce data. Since data management is at the heart of the Salesforce system, it becomes imperative to protect data in the best possible manner to maintain business continuity.
- Systems are susceptible to data losses while undertaking mass data import, during which thousands of data modifications can happen in seconds. If the operator commits an error, then there are chances of losing Salesforce data from the system forever. The loss can be too much for organizations that bleed heavily from the damage.
- As companies are more and more deploying automated tools to streamline and speed up the business processes, a significant threat to data loss looms large because of the chances of the tools overwriting data that could mean mass data corruption or data loss.
- The most common causes of data losses are lapses and errors on the part of users and Administrators.
Since none of the events are entirely preventable, organizations should leave nothing to chance about protecting data. They must implement a Salesforce Backup solution that can take care of all kinds of eventualities in case of data loss and help recover and access the lost data without fuming and fretting.
Which data to backup?
When creating a data backup and recovery strategy for Salesforce and look out for some backup solutions, you must know which type of data to focus upon. Indeed, you must back up the entire Salesforce data, but at the same time, you must also protect your Metadata. Remember that ignoring Meta Data backup can prove too costly, and backing up both types of data is critical for businesses. Salesforce data includes all data generated when using the system for business operations. These are critical for running the business as it helps to analyze various metrics to evaluate the business performance. On the other hand, Metadata is the data related to the configuration of Salesforce, such as page layouts, custom fields, and any other part of the Salesforce that has undergone customization to integrate smoothly with the business process.
It sends shivers down the spine of business leaders to imagine losing thousands of data due to negligent deletion or overwriting or otherwise if there is no proper Salesforce backup solution in place.
Native backup solutions for Salesforce
Salesforce has some native backup solutions for its users who can have complete peace of mind in managing data without the fear of losing it. Here are some of the features of the solutions provided by Salesforce.
Data Backup
Data Export services, Data Loader and Report Export are essential features that facilitate data backup.
- Using the Data Export Services, you can perform a scheduled or manual backup of our data by using the Salesforce User Interface (UI). Â It will help to organize your data into many CSV files that form a set.
- Data Loader helps to export data, and although it involves several manual steps, it gives you more control over the data you are exporting.
- Using the Salesforce report interface, you can export data to any desired destination for safely backing it up.
Metadata backup
There are several ways of backing up Metadata in Salesforce.
- By using Change Sets, you can copy data from Saleforce.org. The feature is helpful to move data from Production to Developer.org or a sandbox.
- The Sandbox Refresh feature allows refreshing a sandbox which is nothing but taking a copy of your production.org.
- A more advanced tool is the Force.com Migration Tool that you can use with a command-line interface to move changes between the Orgs.
What are Salesforce Data Recovery Services?
Despite Salesforce providing enough features for users to implement suitable backup and recovery plans, there are instances when lapses do happen. Organizations fail to take complete cover for all their data. Some data might always remain out of the bounds of the organizations due to the limitations of the backup solutions. For them, Salesforce offers Data Recovery Services on a chargeable basis to recover whatever data the organization wants at that point in time. By submitting a support request to Salesforce, users can avail of services that take about 6-8 weeks for completion at the expense of $10,000 but without any guarantee of recovering 100% data.
Since at least a third of the SaaS companies suffer from data loss, it is critical to have a recovery service in place.
