Do I Really Need to Backup My Salesforce Data?

When I ask the question “Where do you store the backups of your Salesforce Org?” I frequently hear the reply “Why do I need a backup of the data when Salesforce stores that for me?”

Most Salesforce customers are aware that the company maintains a copy of their customer data for disaster recovery. With the multiple security measures Salesforce has around Its infrastructure and data, it is easy to be lulled into a false sense of security and determine that data back-ups are not necessary. It is however, important for every company (no matter the size) to have their own data backup and recovery plan.

Cost

Retrieving a data backup from Salesforce is not a perfect solution. Salesforce help states that Data Recovery should be used as a “...last resort, when no other copy of the data is available" (costs and additional info here). Additionally, it could take up to 8 weeks to get your data back. Having access to your own data backups could save you a lot of time and money!

Compliance

Dependent on your industry and location, there are likely legal retention requirements or external regulations that mandate specific types of data be available for a specified timeframe (and destroyed after a specific timeframe has past). If your company ends up in litigation or an external audit, the company may need to bear the cost of locating any required data. If the data was accidently deleted, this could cause some big issues.

Calamity

No matter how skilled you are as an Administrator or Salesforce user, accidents DO happen! How horrible would it be to find out that hundreds of records were updated incorrectly or even deleted!?! At Endiem, before we use data loader or an update wizard, we make sure to backup the data just in case.  We recommend Administrators follow a similar process AND backup their Org before any major release.

Need some help getting your next data project up and running? Give Endiem a call, and we’ll get your Salesforce back in tip-top shape.