Ask yourself this question, have you backed up your data in Salesforce recently? Data backup, especially for the data in the Salesforce cloud platform, is extremely crucial. In reality, with the world becoming more & more digi-centric, it’s pretty easy to lose valuable data, if one’s not careful. This is the reason, March 31st is set aside as World Backup Day to act as a constant reminder for users to back up their data, files, & everything else of value.
For users who already have a data backup strategy in place, World Backup Day serves to remind them to check up on their backups to make sure they are performing optimally & the data can be easily restored. But for companies that don’t have any backup plan in place, this day brings to focus the aspect of data security & considering the impact a data loss event would have on their Salesforce system.
Success comes to those who are smart and smart are those who always take the backup of their data.
Data backup no longer remains a ‘nice-to-have’ capability, instead, it has grown to be the need of the hour. Many companies have lately realized the importance of backing up their data in Salesforce, but even then they end up making certain mistakes in the overall process. So on this occasion of World Backup Day, let’s talk about some of the most critical mistakes users can make while backing up their data in Salesforce:
Not Protecting Off-Site Data
These days employees working from outside the office on their systems pose a new kind of threat to the data. In such cases, where employees store business-critical data on their system, it’s the enterprise’s responsibility to backup that data as well. In case the company forgets to protect or back up this off-site data, the data is still left vulnerable to being lost, instead, it’s of utmost importance that companies set forth regulations to back up data from all systems & end-points, irrespective of the location.
Also Read: EXPLAINED: Top 5 Best Practices for Data Backup & Recovery in Salesforce
Not Using Right Backup Methods
There are indeed different methods of storing & backing up the data. Some companies still trust the age-old methods of using data tapes or disks for storing their backup data; which again proves to be a grave mistake. This is because the data backup & recovery strategy should be decided in such a way that it meets all the requirements of the company. Using outdated backup systems just spells trouble for the enterprise in case they are lost, damaged, or stolen. Instead, companies should choose technologies that are more relevant & pose a lesser risk.
Not Having a Fixed Data Backup Schedule
Simply installing the data backup system & calling it a day doesn’t work when it comes to ensuring the safety of important data in Salesforce. Not having a proper backup plan or a well-thought-out data backup schedule will lead to troubles in the future. Before deciding upon their backup policy, companies must assess whether they need to back up their data daily, weekly, or monthly. They must also take into account the data retention span that governs their industry. In short, data backups must be more frequent & detailed when the company deals with critical data & needs to retain it for longer.
Also Read: Avoid Salesforce Data Loss: Top Five Salesforce Data Loss Prevention Strategies
Using the Records That Need to be Backed Up
Not every cloud backup service allows users to back up the data records & files while they’re open & in use. This means if a record is being used or accessed while the backup process is running, there’s a high possibility that that particular record may not have been backed up. Now, a single data record may not cause the failure of the entire backup process but if multiple records like this exist then this can have a cascading effect on the efficiency of the data backup process. So, it’s always recommended to ensure that no records that are being backed up are in use.
Never Testing the Recovery Process
It’s one thing to back up the data, but a completely different thing to ensure that the backed-up data is indeed backed up properly. In reality, 60% of data backups are incomplete & over 50% of data restorations fail. This happens because enterprises fail to check the authenticity of their data backup process & ignore to test the efficiency of their backup & recovery processes. Therefore, testing the system for flaws is as important as making sure that the backup system exists in the first place.
Things to Keep in Mind
Some important tips to keep in mind when devising the data backup strategy for your Salesforce system:
Life is sorted when your data is safe and safely backed up…… World Backup Day is a reminder to take the backup every time!!!
In case you still need help in creating a data backup & recovery strategy for your Salesforce system, you can always get in touch with our experts that will introduce you to DataArchiva Backup. This robust data backup & recovery application for Salesforce will let you seamlessly back up your data into AWS S3 storage & recover it whenever you need it. So, this World Backup Day, give your enterprise the gift of peace of mind by implementing a proper backup strategy, like DataArchiva Backup, in your system.
When your data is backed up, you can sleep better and focus better on your goals.
DataArchiva is an enterprise data management application built for Salesforce that offers complete data management solutions including archive, backup, and seeding.
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