9
Reasons for
Salesforce
Backup
Why organizations need to be in control
of their own Salesforce data
9 Reasons for Salesforce Backup 2
Introduction
Do you know if your Salesforce data and metadata are currently
being backed up? Do you know the difference between Salesforce
data and metadata? If you were asked to name the person that
owns Salesforce within your organization, what would your
answer be? Not knowing the answers to these questions is what
tends to get organizations into trouble when their Salesforce
data and metadata are compromised and not backed up.
Salesforce is the #1 customer relationship management (CRM)
program in the world due to its advanced account and contact
management, customization options, and third party app
integrations. While these options can be essential to the growth
of a business, the potential loss of months and even years of
customizations can throw a thriving business into a tailspin.
Salesforce’s primary focus is to manage the infrastructure and
maintain uptime for its users, but as a user, you are responsible
for backing up your own data.
While data loss is inevitable within an organization, whether
that’s due to human error, integration error or data breaches,
being proactive about data protection is the first step to
avoiding disruptions. The following report will explore
the importance of having a backup strategy in place when,
not if, your data becomes corrupted.
9 Reasons for Salesforce Backup 3
The misconceptions of Salesforce backup
There is always confusion about what Salesforce actually backs up,
and how easily you can retrieve data that is lost or has been corrupt.
Most organizations assume their Salesforce data is automatically
backed up in the cloud and is easily accessible if something goes
wrong. Unfortunately, there are a few things wrong with this
thought process.
There is no arguing the growth and business criticality of Salesforce
data and metadata, yet organizations rarely back it up. Even
though Salesforce hosts the infrastructure, this doesn’t replace
YOUR responsibility to protect your Salesforce instance from
data loss and corruption. It’s your Salesforce data and it is your
responsibility to protect it.
Protecting Salesforce metadata is just as important as protecting your
Salesforce data, but what exactly is metadata? Simply put, metadata
is data that describes, connects or organizes other data. This is kind
of like a librarian, who knows the location of each book and how
they all fit together — the data are the books. Metadata can also
be compared to a search engine that can find and show you exactly
what you need in any situation. In Salesforce, metadata could be page
layouts, code, custom fields or configurations. For example, when you
create an account in Salesforce, your first name, last name, company
name and phone number are all considered metadata. Not keeping
your architecture safe and accessible in case of data loss can change
a simple mistake into a major setback to an organization.
9 Reasons for Salesforce Backup 4
9 reasons why
you need a Salesforce backup
Understanding that Salesforce backup is your organization’s With so many people touching Salesforce within an organization,
responsibility is the first step in solving the problem. The second ranging from sales to marketing to IT, it can be hard to know
is figuring out who in your organization makes sure your Salesforce what changes are being made. This is also the reason why
instance is properly backed up. More than once we have heard, sometimes it can take weeks or months for a data compromise
“I assumed IT would have figured this out”, “I thought the to be discovered.
Salesforce Admin was responsible”, “Why did our Salesforce
Consultant not think about this?”
Salesforce data loss and data corruption can include
Human error: Human error: Human error: Human error: Human error: Integration Data Data Poor
Admin User Developer Overprivileged Salesforce error corruption: corruption: data hygiene
user accidental malicious
9 Reasons for Salesforce Backup 5
#1 #2
Human error: Human error:
Administrator User
Even with deep Salesforce expertise, it’s all too easy — and Even users with regular permissions can cause major data
tempting — to upload or change data on-the-fly while in loss incidents, and not everything can be restored from
production. However, if a mistake is made, it can quickly the recycle bin.
propagate all throughout the application and ruin its
relational integrity. When administrators use tools like Data
Loader to change records, mass amounts of data can be
overwritten in seconds. Data Loader can input, update and
completely delete up to five million records at one time.
Example Example
A Salesforce admin uses Data Loader to upload a large A customer support representative in the call center
amount of data, but accidentally maps a list of fields deletes or alters data that was used in a report,
incorrectly which overwrites all existing data. Or, instead which then feeds into an important team dashboard
of using a sandbox, less experienced admins may and now the dashboard is reporting on incorrect
configure changes in a live environment to save time data. Or, a support user merges two accounts that
and accidentally erase large amounts of data. shouldn’t have been merged, so it’s impossible to
separate their contacts, opportunities and contracts.
9 Reasons for Salesforce Backup 6
#3 #4
Human error: Human error:
Developer Overprivileged users
While working within complex configurations, workflows or It’s very common for someone in marketing, sales or finance
formulas in Apex, the slightest mistake can wreak havoc across to have administrator access, when they really shouldn’t.
Salesforce objects. For large installations, configuration changes Not verifying user access and checking permissions can be
happen daily, and pressure from the business to make changes detrimental to an organization’s interface. For example, if a user
quickly might lead to skipping standard release protocols. accidentally has access to objects and are creating random
records, unraveling the resulting mess could take days or weeks.
System administrator privileges are often given to a group of
people from different departments within an organization after
implementation, and they’re never taken back.
Example Example
Bad code wasn’t tested properly and then causes major Something as simple as the vice president of sales
issues when rolled to production. The entire Salesforce deciding they don’t need a certain field and deletes it,
flow is then flawed and needs to be rebuilt, and any which also deletes all the field history and the changes
impacted data needs to be restored. Or, when migrating are no longer tracked. Unfortunately, errors like this
the entire Knowledge base in Service cloud from can sometimes take days or weeks to be discovered.
the older Classic interface to the newer Lightening
interface, you find that permissions and user access
is different in the two interfaces and a huge amount
of data that took nine months to build is gone.
9 Reasons for Salesforce Backup 7
#5 #6
Human error: Integration
Salesforce error
Outages and data loss are a risk to any system, even for Salesforce has hundreds of plug-ins and integration options that
a world-class CRM system like Salesforce. But don’t forget that alter or move data, many of which are consistently rolling out
Salesforce outages are not the only outages that can put your updates. As a result, data loss or corruption to data or metadata
data at risk. Power outages that cause improper shutdown is common. It’s often the smallest data corruptions that are
can put you at risk of losing data that is unsaved, and even the hardest to identify. Depending on the application that’s being
natural disasters like tornadoes and hurricanes can destroy your installed, items like custom objects and fields can be added
computers, your data, and eventually your business. or modified and then cause problems with overwriting data,
duplicating data or having the same field in different places.
Example Example
93% of companies that lost their data center for ten Integrating third party applications like HubSpot can
days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy cause issues if all the properties, including contacts
within one year of the disaster. and leads, are not mapped correctly. Salesforce has
records for both contacts and leads and HubSpot only
50% of businesses that found themselves without has contacts, so the decision on how this process
data management for the same period of time filed for should flow is crucial.
bankruptcy immediately.
9 Reasons for Salesforce Backup 8
#7 #8
Data corruption: Data corruption:
accidental malicious
Salesforce administrators can move large volumes of data or In just a few clicks, any user can overwrite customer information.
consolidate data quite easily, but this means that mistakes are A disgruntled employee with administrative access with a few
just as easy to make. Accidental data overwriting or deleting clicks can easily change large amounts of key information before
during these processes are very common. leaving a job, or a computer virus could delete a large amount
of data. These are two scenarios that most organizations are
not prepared for.
Example Example
An administrator mass-transferred opportunities based A sales representative that’s responsible for named
on new territory splits, and as a result, named accounts accounts exports contacts from a top account. Then,
got removed from the account executives that need they alter all names, phone numbers and email
them. Or, an administrator used a spreadsheet to addresses within that account. This information now
build a file for data loading, but the spreadsheet was leaves for a competitor.
accidentally corrupted” by deleting a field, which then
caused all the other data to move into the wrong row.
As a result, John Smith’s email and phone number now
gets updated with Jane Jones’s info.
9 Reasons for Salesforce Backup 9
#9
Poor
data hygiene
Often within Salesforce, an administrator can identify fields
or datasets that are either duplicative, incorrect or no
Example
longer needed, but they are afraid to delete them in case of
a mistake. Avoid data sprawl and unnecessary fees by keeping The wrong list from an event was uploaded to the wrong
Salesforce clean. Examples of poor data include duplicate or place. Instead of properly deleting it, a duplicate list
outdated records, formatting for phone numbers and addresses, was uploaded to a different place. A group of contacts
missing values in fields and import/export errors. This can were mistakenly marked as accounts, which created
impact an organization’s pipeline, which can lead to their sales duplicate records, so because of inconsistencies,
forecasting to be over or underestimated. decisions are being made with flawed information.
9 Reasons for Salesforce Backup 10
How often
do these reasons happen?
By now you understand how risky it can be not to backup and secure your Salesforce data for timely recovery, but how
often do these scenarios actually happen? The answer is, more often than you might think. Putting aside the possibility
of a data breach, which can come from outside or inside an organization (a disgruntled soon-to-be ex-employee could
be one scenario). Here are some other everyday possibilities that could boil down to simple human error.
• You have just onboarded five new sales representatives • Your Salesforce Admin is given the direction to unqualify
and one of them assures you he is an expert at Salesforce, 3,000 leads due to numerous reasons. They use Data Loader
so he decides to merge multiple accounts in his territory, and overwrite the wrong data.
thinking he was just moving everything into one place.
• A new integration is added to an organization’s Service
• Someone on the marketing team has administrative privileges Cloud instance and a large number of agent workspaces are
because they have worked in Salesforce in the past, so they overwritten. These agents have now lost the ability to track
decide to delete a custom field because they can’t figure out their customer data, including assets, order history and
how to remove it from an automation journey. This results in support history.
all field history data being deleted.
These types of mistakes can happen in organizations both large and small, but the larger the company, the more
people have access, so the mistakes tend to be larger and more costly.
9 Reasons for Salesforce Backup 11
Conclusion Salesforce Backup
No matter the size of your organization, backing up your
Salesforce data and metadata is something that should not
be put off or ignored. It is your Salesforce data, you control
it, and it is your responsibility to protect it.
A simple mistake can happen at any time, but not being
prepared can result in massive data loss and heavily impact
your organization. Being proactive and having the right
backup solution in place can help lessen these unexpected
occurrences.
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