Salesforce is essential for businesses looking to improve customer management and streamline operations. However, as organizations increasingly depend on it, the importance of robust data protection also grows.
With businesses facing over 1,636 cyberattacks each week, the risk of losing data is rising. The good news is that Salesforce backup solutions provide a critical safeguard against data loss, whether accidental deletions, corruption, or cyber threats like ransomware.
These solutions fill the gaps left by Salesforce's built-in tools, which require manual data exports and recovery efforts.
This article will explore why Salesforce backup options are crucial, how the process works, and which data you should back up.
Why Do I Need a Salesforce Backup Solution?
Businesses need a Salesforce backup solution for several critical reasons, including data protection, compliance, and operational continuity. Let's check out these key reasons in detail:
1. Data loss risks are real
While Salesforce provides some built-in features like data recovery options and limited historical data retention, considering their limitations, these tools cannot eliminate the risk of data loss. For instance, malicious attacks, system errors, or accidental deletion can lead to data loss, eventually putting your business at higher financial consequences.
Data breaches can expose your business to risks even with a reliable platform like Salesforce. According to IBM's 2024 report, the global average cost of a data breach reached $4.88 million. So, having a dedicated backup solution will help you restore your data quickly and accurately, minimizing financial losses and downtime.
2. Compliance and legal requirements
Businesses in specific industries, such as finance or health, must adhere to strict data retention and compliance regulations, such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), and other legal frameworks.
Salesforce's standard features may not provide the level of control, auditability, or retention policies required for these industries. Using backup solutions like Flosum will help you maintain the proper data governance practices and ensure your Salesforce data is backed up to meet regulatory requirements.
3. Protection against malicious attacks
A backup solution can act as a safety net, protecting against malicious attempts to alter, steal, or destroy valuable Salesforce data. For example, if an attacker manages to delete vital customer records, a backup solution can quickly restore the data without significant downtime, allowing business continuity.
4. Customization losses
Salesforce allows businesses to create custom applications, fields, workflows, and more. While these customizations are essential to tailoring Salesforce to your business's specific needs, they can be time-consuming and costly to recreate if lost.
A backup solution lets your customizations, configurations, and data be preserved. In case of accidental deletion or misconfiguration, you can easily roll back to a previous version, saving valuable time and resources.
5. Data integrity and continuity
Data integrity is critical to guarantee that the data in your Salesforce platform remains accurate and reliable. An automated backup solution ensures that your Salesforce data is continually backed up and eliminates the risk of incomplete or inconsistent data.
6. Simplified data recovery process
Salesforce provides a few options for recovering lost data, but these methods often require manual intervention and may not guarantee that all data is recovered. A third-party backup solution simplifies the process, offering easy-to-use interfaces and tools to restore data quickly and efficiently.
Understanding the Salesforce Backup Process
Salesforce offers multiple ways to back up data, depending on the organization's needs. Here are some key approaches:
Step 1: Decide on the type of backup
Salesforce provides several methods to back up your data, each with different levels of granularity.
Choose the backup type that best suits your needs:
- Data Export Service (Built-in): This is Salesforce's most straightforward method. It allows you to export data in CSV format for all or specific objects in your organization.
- Third-Party backup solutions: These tools can provide more comprehensive backup options, including automated backups, enhanced restore features, and easier data management.
- Salesforce API backup: If you're a developer, you can use Salesforce's APIs, such as REST or Bulk API, to create custom backup solutions tailored to your needs.
- Sandbox backups: You can also clone your Salesforce environment into a sandbox, which can be used as a backup to safeguard against data loss.
Step 2: Export your data using a data export service
The Salesforce Data Export feature is accessible via the Salesforce setup menu, and it's ideal for users who prefer a straightforward, no-code solution.
Steps to Export Data:
- Log into Salesforce: Make sure you have the appropriate permissions (System Administrator or a custom profile with export access).
- Navigate to Setup: In the top-right corner, click the gear icon and select "Setup."
- Search for 'Data Export': In the quick search box, type "Data Export" and select it from the results.
- Schedule or Run Export: For Immediate Export, Choose "Export Now" for an immediate backup and Scheduled Export; select a frequency (weekly or monthly) to automate your backups.
- Select Data to Export: This allows you to select which objects, such as accounts, contacts, and opportunities, to include in your backup.
- Download Your Data: Once the export process is complete, download the resulting ZIP file containing CSV files of your selected data.
Remember, Salesforce limits the number of records exported via the Data Export Service. Break up your exports into smaller batches if you have a large dataset.
Step 3: Automate your backups (optional)
Salesforce's scheduled Data Export Service can handle frequent backups or automate the process. However, you may also consider third-party backup solutions like OwnBackup, Flosum, or Druva.
These solutions often offer:
- Run backups on a scheduled basis without manual intervention.
- Back up multiple versions of your data to restore it to any point.
- Select specific records or objects for restoration, not just complete data sets.
Step 4: Backup Metadata
While the Data Export Service backs up only your data, backing up Salesforce metadata, which includes custom fields, page layouts, and Apex classes, is essential for complete disaster recovery.
Salesforce provides two primary ways to back up metadata:
- Change Sets: It transfers metadata between different Salesforce environments. (For instance, from sandbox to production). While they're helpful, they are not valid backups.
- Ant Migration Tool / Salesforce CLI: Developers can use the Salesforce CLI or Ant Migration Tool to retrieve metadata from their Salesforce organization. This allows for more granular backups, and all configurations and customizations are safely stored.
Step 5: Store and secure your backups
It's essential to create backups and store and protect them. Several options are available to achieve this. Platforms like AWS S3, Google Cloud, and Azure are reliable for secure cloud storage to protect your Salesforce backups.
Alternatively, you can use local storage for smaller datasets, but these backups must be encrypted, which will prevent unauthorized access.
Step 6: Test your backups
You can perform test restores to ensure the integrity of the data. Also, verify that everything can be successfully restored in a disaster recovery scenario.
Step 8: Monitor and maintain your backups
Monitor reliable backups regularly and use alerting/reporting features from third-party solutions to ensure reliability. Update your backup strategy whenever changes are made to your Salesforce environment, such as adding new objects, fields, or workflows, to keep backups current.
Native Salesforce Backup Solutions
Native Salesforce backup solutions are designed to protect and recover data within the Salesforce platform. Unlike third-party backup tools, native solutions are built within the Salesforce ecosystem, providing seamless integration with the platform. These solutions help mitigate risks such as data loss, accidental deletion, or ransomware attacks. They ensure that the business data stored in Salesforce remains secure and recoverable.
A native backup solution is essential to the data protection strategy of organizations that rely heavily on Salesforce.
Types of native backup solutions
1. Salesforce backup (paid service)
It offers a comprehensive, automated, paid backup service. It's designed to provide an easy-to-use, seamless process for backing up and restoring Salesforce data.
Key Features
- Automatically backs up data at regular intervals, reducing the risk of human error.
- Allows users to restore data quickly and efficiently in case of data loss, corruption, or other issues.
- Covers a broad range of data types and objects within the Salesforce environment.
- Since it's automated, users don't need to intervene in the backup process. The system ensures that backups are kept up to date without manual effort.
2. Data Export Service
The Data Export Service allows Salesforce users to schedule data backups manually. The service organizes data into CSV files, which can be downloaded and stored locally or elsewhere.
Key Features
- Users can initiate backups on demand or schedule them regularly (e.g., weekly or monthly).
- Data is exported into CSV files, which can be used for analysis or storage.
- Unlike automated services, the Data Export Service requires users to initiate the backup or configure the schedule manually.
- This process does not offer the same level of automation and may be more cumbersome for large datasets or frequent backups.
3. Data Loader
Salesforce is a desktop application for exporting and importing data. Compared to other solutions, it offers users more control over backup and export processes.
Key Features
- Users must initiate backups manually, making it more suited for power users who need custom backup processes.
- The tool allows for exporting large volumes of data, making it ideal for businesses with extensive datasets.
- Users can specify which fields, objects, or records to export, giving them more control over what gets backed up.
- The Data Loader supports API connections, enabling users to automate specific backup tasks or integrate with other systems for data migration.
4. Report Export
Salesforce allows users to export reports directly from within the platform. This method backs up specific data sets or reports rather than the entire database.
Key features
- Like the Data Export Service, this requires user intervention to export the data. The user must enter the report section and manually select the export option.
- Depending on the user's needs, reports can be exported in CSV, Excel, or PDF.
- This method only exports the data within reports, so it might not suffice if users want to back up larger datasets or all Salesforce objects.
What kind of Salesforce data do we back up?
Salesforce data backup encompasses a variety of data types and components crucial for maintaining business continuity and compliance.
Here's an overview of the key elements involved in backing up Salesforce data:
- Standard objects: These include essential records such as accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities, and cases.
- Custom objects: Organizations often create objects to store specific data unique to their operations. Including these in backup plans is vital to protect all relevant information.
- Metadata refers to the configurations, settings, and customizations made within Salesforce. It includes page layouts, code, automatic logic, and other structural elements that define how data is organized and displayed. Backing up metadata is crucial because it allows restoring the entire Salesforce environment, not just the data. Our detailed guide explains how to back up your Salesforce metadata.
- Files and attachments: Any documents or files linked to Salesforce records should also be backed up to prevent the loss of important content associated with customer interactions and transactions.
- Dashboards and reports: These visual data representations are essential for analysis and decision-making.
- Hierarchical relationships: This involves backing up the relationships between different records, which is essential for maintaining the integrity of the data structure during recovery processes.
Best Practices For Backing Up Salesforce Data
Here are some best practices for backing up Salesforce data to keep your business running smoothly.
1. Understand Salesforce's built-in backup tools
Salesforce offers several data backup tools. The Data Export Service allows essential .csv exports but requires manual effort and offers only weekly or monthly backups. Similarly, the Data Loader can automate exports, though it does not support attachments.
Salesforce's paid Backup and Restore service offers automated backups with point-in-time recovery for a more comprehensive solution. However, third-party solutions may be necessary for complex needs.
2. Consider third-party backup solutions
Companies should explore third-party tools like Flosum to improve backup capabilities. These tools offer more advanced features, such as daily automated backups, options to restore individual records or fields, and retention policies that comply with regulations.
3. Set up a backup schedule
A regular backup schedule is essential to know that data is always available. The frequency of backups should depend on the business's needs:
- Daily backups for environments with frequent data changes.
- Weekly backups for less dynamic environments. Automating the backup process reduces human error and helps consistent data protection.
4. Include Metadata in backups
Businesses should back up regular data and include metadata in their backups. Metadata comprises configuration data, custom code like Apex classes, and integration settings. This allows a complete restoration of the Salesforce environment if needed.
5. Test the backup and recovery plan
A backup is only proper if it can restore data when necessary. Regularly testing the backup and recovery process is essential. This can involve running mock recoveries to check for missing or incorrect data. Recovery procedures should also be updated as the Salesforce environment changes.
6. Ensure backup data is secure
It's crucial to protect backup data from unauthorized access. Companies should implement strong security measures, such as:
- Encrypt data both during transfer and when stored.
- Limit backup access to authorized personnel only.
- Keep logs of backup and recovery activities to ensure compliance.
7. Follow data governance requirements
The backup strategy must comply with regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA. This includes retaining data for required periods, storing it in approved locations, and documenting all backup procedures.
8. Train your team
It is essential to train your team to use Salesforce's backup tools and third-party solutions effectively and educate them on recovery procedures.
Limitations of Salesforce backup
Here are some key limitations of Salesforce native backup solutions:
- Limited backup frequency: Salesforce's native backup options allow data exports only once every 7 days (weekly) or 29 days (monthly). This can result in significant data loss between backups, mainly if changes occur frequently.
- No Metadata backup: Native tools do not back up metadata, which includes essential configurations like relationships between objects, custom fields, and reports. If metadata is lost due to errors or deletions, this can lead to extensive downtime.
- Data restoration challenges: Restoring data can be cumbersome and require manual intervention. There is no guarantee that all data will be recoverable, particularly if modified or deleted before the last backup.
- Short data retention period: Deleted data is only retained for 15 days in the Salesforce Recycle Bin. After this period, it is permanently lost, limiting recovery options for users who need more time to restore deleted information.
- User permissions limitations: Users may not have the necessary permissions to access or restore backups, which can hinder recovery efforts during critical situations
- Export file accessibility: The time frame for downloading export files is limited to just 48 hours, which may not be sufficient for larger organizations that require more time to process and manage their data exports.
- Lack of API support for specific data types: Salesforce API limitations prevent the backup or restoration of some objects and metadata types, including specific reports and dashboards, complicating comprehensive data protection strategies.
Conclusion
Salesforce backup solutions help businesses protect their data and maintain seamless operations. While Salesforce includes some built-in recovery tools, they may not adequately safeguard against data loss.
A robust backup solution addresses these by offering automated backups, metadata protection, and simplified recovery processes. Flosum is an excellent choice for Salesforce backup. It offers automated, reliable backup solutions that protect data and metadata. Flosum can perform scheduled backups, store multiple versions, and provide seamless recovery, helping safeguard against potential data loss and downtime. Book a meeting today to understand how it can protect your Salesforce data.
FAQs
1. Does Salesforce have a backup?
Salesforce does perform backups, primarily for its internal disaster recovery. However, these backups are not tailored to user-specific needs. Users are responsible for backing up their data and can utilize Salesforce's native Backup and Restore feature or third-party solutions.
2. What is a Salesforce backup solution?
A Salesforce backup solution is a system designed to create copies of Salesforce data and metadata to prevent loss or corruption. It includes features for automated backups, on-demand restores, and managing backup policies.
3.What are the limitations of Salesforce backup?
Salesforce's native backup solutions have limitations: limited backup frequency, no metadata backup, restoration challenges, short data retention (15 days), user permission restrictions, limited export file accessibility (48 hours), and API support issues for specific data types. These limitations can result in data loss, downtime, and difficulty recovering critical information.
