Backup Your Salesforce Data or Archive it?

A Salesforce backup, is the copy of the entire environment. This is done to ensure that in the event of a catastrophe, all the informatio

Before we embark on the details of how these two work, let us get the elephant out of the room first.

A backup is the copy of the entire data while an archive is information that may or may not be relevant for the ongoing of operations. Archived data is usually historical by nature and is kept for posterity and reference.

A Salesforce backup, therefore, would be the copy of the entire environment. This is done to ensure that in the event of a catastrophe, all the information can be restored at the earliest possible time. Business continuity plans are based on the capabilities of organizations that can recoup from such circumstances. These situations arise out of a variety of reasons. Human error, natural phenomenon, a coding issue, et al. All these events have the potential to wipe off the entire database and cause irreparable damage to the company. These damages may be financial, reputational or both in nature. To overcome such an ignominy, organizations have put in place multimillion-dollar backup plans that would kick in the moment tragedy strikes. These cold, low-cost storage are meant to store every possible data needed to help the operations function like before.

The Frequency

There is a debate which is currently raging in the tech world regarding the correct frequency of backing up. While most companies back their usual data at least once a day, data regarding the more critical ones will have to be backed up more often. In most cases, it is done every almost 2 hours. Every time the data is being changed or new data added to it, the database has to be backed up.

There is no thumb rule about archiving data. These are the low hanging activities and can be done at some point in time. While data must be archived or the sake of posterity, it need not be done frequently and certainly not as frequently as a backup.  Archiving also depends on the data retention policy of individual companies as well as the IT Acts being followed by respective countries. Based on them archiving is scheduled.

Access ControlBackups are related to the immediate set of data required to operate certain immediate functions. It is also critical to the nature of work and cannot be openly accessed by everyone. Access control is an integral part of IT Security. Admins, Super Admins and IT personal authorized to access data need to be extremely careful while dealing with such controls. They need the requisite permission to access the data themselves as well as provide the same to a third party. Due diligence has to be maintained whilst handling data which has been backed up.

Archived data is usually used for historical and educational purposes. The training and development team may ask for archived data to provide newbies with illustrations of scenarios. This would help them understand the response mechanism or even ways to process such functions. Archived data is used by every organization to train their staff. Depending on the importance of the data and the kind of access control these data have, most of them are made easily accessible.

Response Time

Back up data needs to be stored in an area which can be accessed at the quickest possible time. The whole purpose is defeated if data which has been backed up cannot be gotten when it is most needed. Organizations create protocols to avoid such faux pas. These are also part of the nightmares that IT managers pray never happen. Speed is of utmost essence here.

There is no such exigency when it comes to archived data. As long as they have stored in somewhere safe, nothing else really matters. Organizations are well aware of the importance of archived data and hence have created large reserves for the same. However, it cannot be compared to the sophistry and robustness of backups.

Location

Backups, in the case of Salesforce, is usually done at the same location. This is done to avoid any loss of time and extended response times. Archives can be stored at any secondary storage or other options that Salesforce data protection tools provide the user with. ArchiveOnCloud (AOC) is one such Salesforce data protection platform that gives ease of backing data up, its restoration, comparison etc. 

Retention

Backups are short-term activities while archiving data is a long time and in many cases a permanent activity. The data which is usually backed up will keep changing and newer backups will be created over a period in time. The final set of data will then be archived and stored away in a different location for future reference. With AOC, you can backup data of your Salesforce Org in a database of your choice and restore it back to Salesforce when needed. History Tracking feature keeps the record and data history and each of its versions safe for you, in order to keep data protected in all the forms. 

Performance

One of the most important thing about the constant backup of Salesforce data is that you always have the latest version of the data saved. Keeping the backups in the form of excel or CSV is too confusing and complex to deal with, it also decreases in storage space of your storage space and thus drop in performance of the overall system and then has to be countered through expensive upgrades. With AOC, you can backup or archive Salesforce data to any database, which makes it easy to use and non-complex to deal with. One-click restore of data makes it even better. 

Archives generally happen in storage thus freeing the primary storage. This leads to an improvement in performance in the overall system. With the announcement of Salesforce retiring its Recovery service, it becomes all the more important to keep your Salesforce data protected. For easy data archive, backup, compare, retention and restore, you need AOC. Get in touch with us for a demo. 

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