Comprehensive Salesforce Big Objects Guide: Benefits, Limitations, Use Cases

Scale-up without slowing down with Salesforce Big Objects, managing your growing data needs while maintaining performance and scalability

Salesforce, the world’s leading CRM platform, has revolutionized how businesses manage customer relationships. Founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff, Salesforce offers a comprehensive suite of applications for sales, customer service, marketing, analytics, and more.

As businesses expand and generate massive amounts of data, the limitations of traditional storage solutions become increasingly apparent, highlighting the need for robust and scalable options. Salesforce Big Objects, a groundbreaking big data storage system introduced in 2018, empowers businesses to scale their data management capabilities without compromising performance.

In this blog, we’ll uncover how Salesforce Big Objects can streamline managing and analyzing large datasets within the CRM, providing insights into data storage strategies that keep performance sharp without compromising on growth.

Alongside exploring the core benefits, we’ll examine potential limitations, discuss performance considerations, and understand practical use cases across industries.

An Overview of Salesforce Big Objects

When managing vast amounts of data in Salesforce, standard and custom objects may not suffice (we’ll discuss them in detail below). That’s where Salesforce Big Objects come into play. These specialized objects can handle billions of records without compromising performance, which makes them ideal for dealing with large-scale datasets.

Unlike traditional objects, Big Data Objects in Salesforce don’t contribute to your organization’s storage limit. They allow you to store as much data as needed without exceeding the Salesforce edition’s storage capacity and provide a seamless way to integrate external data sources into your Salesforce environment.

Standard APIs enable access and management of Big Object data within Salesforce. This flexibility ensures compatibility with both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience, making Big Objects accessible to a wide range of users and systems.

Types of Data Objects

There are two types of Salesforce objects, besides Big Objects—Standard and Custom. They both function differently than Big Objects but have their purpose.

Standard Big Objects

These are pre-built objects like Accounts, Contacts, and Leads included in Salesforce org to manage common business data and processes. They store data for specific purposes. For example, FieldHistoryArchive stores data for the Field Audit Trail feature. These objects are always available but cannot be changed.

Custom Big Objects

These are user-defined objects you create to store information specific to your business. They can be used to extend the capabilities of the Lightning Platform. For example, if you’re building an app to track product inventory, you could create a custom object called HistoricalInventoryLevels to store historical inventory data for analysis and future planning.

Why Consider Using Big Objects?

Big Objects are perfect for managing huge amounts of data in Salesforce without slowing things down. They help you store and access historical data to keep the main system running smoothly. Here’s why Big Objects can make a difference for your data management in Salesforce:

Scalability: Salesforce Big Data Objects can handle billions of records, making them perfect for businesses with growing data needs. As your data piles up, Big Objects ensure you can manage it all without breaking a sweat.
Performance: With Big Object Storage in Salesforce, your regular Salesforce apps run smoothly, even when dealing with massive datasets. Big Objects are built to handle high volumes while keeping your system running at top speed.
Archiving: Big Objects are ideal for archiving old data you need to keep for compliance or analysis. By moving this data out of your core CRM, you improve performance and cut storage costs.
Data Access: You can still easily access and analyze archived data thanks to Salesforce’s built-in tools. Query Big Objects in Salesforce for insights, no matter how large the dataset, and keep your business running smoothly.

Advantages of Salesforce Big Objects

Salesforce Big Objects provides a scalable solution for efficiently managing large volumes of legacy data. When businesses harness the power of Salesforce Big Objects effectively, they unlock a treasure trove of advantages that become pivotal assets for driving growth.

Future-Proof Storage: Salesforce Big Objects provides a scalable, secure solution for companies to store large volumes of historical data. They ensure data integrity and adapt to the company’s growth to sustain expanding data needs without compromising performance.

Cost-Efficient: Big Objects offer a significantly more cost-effective alternative to Salesforce’s standard storage options, potentially reducing data storage costs by over 80%.

Built-in Analytics: Data stored in Big Objects can be analyzed efficiently without needing external tools, offering valuable insights while reducing additional costs.

Handling High-Volume Transactions: Big Objects maintain performance while storing data effectively for large-scale transactions like e-commerce orders or financial records.

Trend Analysis: Organizations can leverage Big Objects for long-term trend analysis, retaining historical data to enable deeper insights into customer behavior and market shifts.

Async SOQL for Large Data Sets: Big Objects use a subset of SOQL (Async SOQL) to process large datasets, making them familiar and easy to use for those experienced with Salesforce.

Audit and Compliance: Big Objects also address GDPR and other compliance needs by allowing organizations to store customer data securely within Salesforce for extended periods.

Limitations of Big Object in Salesforce

While Salesforce Big Objects provide numerous benefits, it’s important to consider their limitations in Salesforce as part of your data management strategy.

Data Volume Limits: Though designed for high-volume storage, Salesforce Big Objects have specific data storage limits per object, which vary depending on your Salesforce edition and configuration.
Limited Field Types: Big Objects in Salesforce support a narrower range of field types compared to standard objects. For example, certain formula fields and complex data types may not be supported, which could require workarounds when designing data models.
Query Performance: Queries on Salesforce Big Data Objects, particularly those involving large datasets or complex filters, can be slower compared to standard objects. This can affect performance in real-time reporting or dashboards, especially when retrieving specific data points.
Developer Experience: Developers may face limitations due to Big Objects in Salesforce having restricted API support and fewer options for standard data manipulation tools. Additionally, loading and managing large datasets can be challenging.
Scalability Constraints: While Salesforce Big Objects are inherently scalable, they aren’t limitless. As data volume increases, maintaining optimal performance or scaling the solution may require careful architecture planning and data management strategies to avoid potential bottlenecks.

An alternative solution to all these roadblocks is to use external archiving. With DataArchiva, you can archive important data to an external, compatible database, bypassing Big Objects’ storage limits and field-type restrictions. This approach helps reduce data storage costs by over 90% and enhances your CRM’s performance by offloading non-essential data.

Use Cases of Big Objects

Big Objects in Salesforce are designed to handle massive data volumes, making them ideal for storing historical data, auditing, and tracking trends over time. Here are some practical ways to leverage Big Objects effectively:

A 360-degree View of the Customer
Imagine having a crystal-clear picture of your customers, from their loyalty programs to their latest clicks. Big Objects makes this a reality by storing all their information in one place to help you understand customer needs and tailor your interactions accordingly. It’s like having an assistant who understands your customers even better than they do.
Auditing and Change Tracking: A Digital Trailblazer
Ever wondered how you can keep track of every change in your Salesforce data, especially for those heavily regulated industries? Big Objects are your digital trailblazers. They create a detailed audit trail to store logs for compliance or security audits, such as login histories, data access records, and field changes across multiple objects. Now, you can easily trace back any modifications and ensure compliance.
Historical Archives: A Time Machine for Your Data
Need to access old data for analysis or compliance purposes? Big Objects are your time machine. They store historical data without slowing down your core Salesforce applications. It’s like having a treasure chest full of past information, always accessible when you need it.

Standard Object vs Custom Object vs Big Object

Feature

Standard Objects

Custom Objects

Big Objects

Purpose

Manage everyday business data and CRM activities.

Address specific business needs with tailored structures.

Handle massive volumes of data for long-term analysis.

Data Volume

Designed for moderate volumes of transactional data.

Can vary, generally moderate to high volume.

Built to handle extremely large volumes of data.

Customization Level

Limited customization, mainly through fields and records.

Highly customizable, including fields, records, and logic.

Limited customizable, focused on data structure.

Use Cases

Daily customer management, sales tracking, and support.

Specific business processes, and unique data management.

Historical data storage, big data analysis, compliance.

Examples

Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities.

Student Records, Faculty, Course Management.

Field History Archive, Event Logs, Transaction Archives.

DataArchiva Supports Full Backups of Salesforce Big Objects

When using Big Objects to store vital business data, solid backup protection is essential as part of your business continuity strategy. While Salesforce’s standard backup options may have certain limitations, DataArchiva provides a robust and effective solution for backing up Big Objects, including commonly used archives like the FieldHistoryArchive.

DataArchiva facilitates incremental backups of Big Objects by using well-designed indexes, ensuring that only newly added or updated records are backed up during each cycle. This greatly reduces backup time and storage needs. Even in cases where Big Objects lack unique identifiers or iterators, DataArchiva can perform full data extractions to ensure complete and reliable protection.

Request the product demo to see how DataArchiva can revolutionize your Salesforce Big Object archiving strategy.

Key Takeaways

In a data-driven world, Salesforce Big Objects are your secret weapon for handling massive datasets without a hitch. They keep your core system running smoothly while giving you easy access to archives, audit trails, and historical insights that drive smarter decisions.

Big Objects are ideal for a 360-degree customer view; they store vast customer data for auditing and change tracking for compliance, and creating historical archives. They’re also perfect for trend analysis with long-term data retention and managing high-volume transactions within Salesforce.

Big Objects lets you store essential data at scale, cost-effectively, and efficiently, with the flexibility to grow as you do. While they have a few quirks, like limited field types and slower query speeds on massive sets, pairing them with tools like DataArchiva can help you work around these challenges, offering a balanced, powerful storage solution.

Ready to future-proof your data strategy? You’re set to scale and succeed without limits with Salesforce Big Objects!

FAQs

What are the 4 objects in Salesforce?

The 4 objects in Salesforce include Standard Objects, Custom Objects, Big Objects, and External Objects.

Is the Salesforce Big object free?

While Salesforce Big Objects are not free, they offer a cost-effective solution for storing and managing large datasets. Salesforce provides a generous allowance of 1 million free Big Object records per organization, allowing you to explore their capabilities without incurring immediate costs.

Managing Salesforce Data Storage Has Never Been Easier

Protect Salesforce data with archiving, retrieval, and top-tier security, ensuring compliance without compromising performance.

Get the App

Table of Content

DataArchiva offers three powerful applications through AppExchange including Native Data Archiving powered by BigObjects, External Data Archiving using 3rd-party Cloud/On-prem Platforms, and Data & Metadata Backup & Recovery for Salesforce.

For more info, please get in touch with us at [email protected]

Quick Links

Help?

Terms & Conditions

Cancellation Policy