A Complete Guide for Salesforce Data Recovery and Backup Solutions

Salesforce is one of the important systems for many organizations. Therefore, the value of outstanding recovery and backup services becomes a key priority to protect the available data within the platform. Deploying Salesforce means you have a responsibility to secure and prevent the data not only for your organization but also for your customers and partners. Of course, Salesforce also provides different data recovery and backup solutions to recover the data losses or to bring the previous value of the data. In this blog, we are focusing on how users can better manage their Salesforce data by providing a Salesforce data recovery and backup guide.

Difference Between Backup and Recovery

Both these terms are closely connected, but practically they contain a different set of requirements and considerations. The process of saving data by copying it in a secure place is called “backup”. With this, you can recover your data in case of any unfortunate infrastructure or service issues. Backups can be done in different forms, such as data duplication on the cloud or saving data to a data center.
On the other hand, “Recovery” includes a set of tools, policies, and procedures that enable data recovery in the event of data loss. In case your Salesforce data is lost or permanently deleted then Salesforce data recovery can save you.

What data should be backed up?

There are many possibilities of data loss, such as power outages, data center failures, human errors, etc. Even if you divide the data into minor or major categories, it can pose a business and legal risk to your organization in both cases.

You need to understand which Salesforce data is essential and what should be protected for recovery. The data backup services can secure the main data types, including cases, contacts, leads, contracts, and opportunities. Also, you should keep a backup of additional date types, custom object records, and files. Many organizations have their own custom configurations such as metadata, fields, page layouts, etc. that need to be backed up.

Salesforce Data Protection solutions

1. Data Recovery Service

With Salesforce Data Recovery Services, you can get help from Salesforce.com Support to recover your data at a specific point in time when it is lost or corrupted. If you are not using a third-party backup solution, then Salesforce Data Recovery Services is the last option for you. Once you place the request with the Salesforce support team, it will take around six to eight weeks to recover your data. They will send the recovered data in the form of “.csv” files that are manually uploaded into Salesforce.

2. Salesforce Backup Tools

Some of the backup and restore Salesforce data tools are:-

• Data Export

This service allows you to take manual or automatic backups of your data on a monthly or weekly basis. It includes the backup of images, documents, chatter files, and attachments. In this method, data is exported into a set of CSV files. Once the data is exported, it will be deleted after 48 hours because it is not supported by sandboxes. In the case of heavy traffic, there is a chance of delay. In this case, third-party tools such as AvePoint’s Cloud Backup for Salesforce can prove beneficial by enabling the quick export of data at a minimum time. It is a good option to save time.

• Report Export

This method provides you with a simple way to export your Salesforce data manually through a report interface. But, it is a manual process which is time consuming and prone to human error.

• Salesforce APIs

If you want to take a backup of Salesforce information via external applications, then Salesforce APIs can help you. For a better comprehensive solution, cloud backup can prove beneficial for protecting and restoring metadata and other customized configurations.

3. Native Restoration Tools

Salesforce also offers some native methods for data backup and restore that include:

• Recycle Bin

User-deleted data such as parent accounts, custom lookups, and cases can be easily restored from the Salesforce recycle bin. The data will last for 15 days in the recycle bin, during which the user can retrieve the accidentally deleted data. After 15 days, the data will be automatically deleted.

• Data Import Wizard

The data import wizard is utilized for importing the data for Salesforce objects such as leads, accounts, custom objects, and more.

• Data Loader

In the case of bulk data export or import, Data Loader allows you to update, insert, or delete the Salesforce record by providing an easy-to-use wizard interface. This gives you better control over data exports and imports.
While the Recycle Bin provides data restoring for soft deleted data for a specific time period, Data Import and Data Loader provide some options for restoring essential data and are more focused on providing update and edit options for existing data. Salesforce cloud can provide a full backup and bulk data restoration.

4. Managing Metadata with the Metadata API

Metadata contains configuration, custom object records, and codes, which are equally important as your main data types. The Metadata API allows you to take a back-up, restore, customize, and manage your metadata in the Salesforce environment.

• Change sets- You can be used to copy metadata from Salesforce org to another place like Sandbox or developer org.
• Sandbox Refresh- It allows you to take a fresh copy of your production Org. by refreshing a Sandbox.
• Force.com Migration Tool- It is an advanced tool used with a command line interface to move metadata from one Org to another.

Limitations with native Salesforce backup and recovery services

In Salesforce, it is a little complicated to understand the Salesforce backup and recovery services. It has limited capabilities to take a full backup of your data due to its unreliable process and high fees. This is a reason why Salesforce also recommends customers use a third party backup solution. The native options, such as recycle bin restore, weekly export, etc, are manual and time-consuming and do not provide the guarantee of full data recovery.

Third party solutions for automated daily backup can prove beneficial in different ways –

• Provide tools to overcome the limitations of Salesforce data backup and recovery
• Automated daily backups allow you to keep up with all the Salesforce data on a daily basis.
• As compared to Weekly Export, automated data backup will take less time and effort. Your weekly Salesforce exports are unable to protect your data against different situations.
• The third-party cloud-to-cloud daily backup solution provides unlimited storage, which is a comparatively less costly alternative.

Wrapping Up

Salesforce data is highly important for any organization, but there is always a risk of data loss due to a variety of reasons. It is your responsibility to understand it and take the right measures to prevent the loss of your critical data. Instead of waiting for any unfortunate event or disaster to happen, it is best to get prepared before it happens. When it comes to Salesforce data recovery and back-up solutions, you should approach a trusted partner like Ksolves that helps you by providing expert consulting services.

At Ksolves, we provide the complete gamut of personalized solutions, from Salesforce implementation to customization. Contact us today to get Salesforce consulting services for your project.

Frequently Asked Questions –

What is the Salesforce Recycle Bin?

The Recycle Bin includes all the files and items that were deleted. Salesforce admins can view all deleted files across the entire org. You can see the recycle bin in the left sidebar on the home page.

What is the Salesforce data recovery service?

Previously, the Salesforce Data Recovery Service was known as Data Restoration. It is a paid service of Salesforce to assist customers in recovering their lost data. If your Salesforce data is permanently deleted or lost, then you can take help from Salesforce Data Recovery.

What are the two methods of exporting data in Salesforce?

There are two ways of exporting data in Salesforce:

• Data Export Services- With this, you can export your data manually once every 7 days or 29 days. Also, you can export your data automatically on a weekly or monthly basis.
• Data Loader-You can operate it either through user inference or command line. You have the latter option if you want to automate the export process or need to use APIs to integrate with another system.

Does Salesforce offer any free backup services?

There are many free native options available that customers can use to get a routine back-up of their data. However, there are other third-party options available when a comprehensive approach is required.