Salesforce
Secure Backup

In 2020, Salesforce retired its Data Recovery service. Now, organizations using Salesforce are responsible for backing up their own data. The best way to do this is by using a third-party backup solution.

A data retention policy is a statement that outlines how long data will be stored by an organization. In Salesforce, you can create custom retention policies for data and storage using the Retention Policies feature.

Find detailed information on how to do this here: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.data_retention.htm&type=5

‍You can also anonymize personally identifiable information (PII) in your organizations and in the data retention store, by replacing fields or records with random characters or mock data. You can also choose to delete data from your organization when it’s copied to the data retention store.

When a user deleted data, Salesforce stores it in the recycle bin for a maximum of 15 days. This period is known as the “soft delete” stage. During the soft delete stage, you can still restore data back into the organization. If you empty data from the recycle bin or the 15 day retention period expires, the data becomes “hard deleted”. When this happens, you can no longer recover the data. However, you can access hard deleted data from the Salesforce workbench.

If data is deleted from the database, the deletion is permanent. You can only access permanently deleted data via a backup solution.

You can restore soft deleted records using the “un-delete” operation within the Salesforce recycle bin. However, you can’t use this operation on hard deleted records that have been manually deleted from the recycle bin, or once data has been in the recycle bin for longer than 15 days. In that case, you need to use the Salesforce workbench.

You can find and recover hard-deleted records (i.e., records that have been manually removed from the recycle bin, or that have been in the recycle bin for more than 15 days and expired) using the Salesforce workbench. To do this:

1. Select “Include” under “Deleted and archived records”.
2. Once Salesforce located the ID for the record, select “Undelete” from the drop-down at the top of the page.
3. Enter the ID and follow the prompts to restore the record.

However, you can’t use this method for data that has been removed from your database. In that case, you can only restore data by using a third-party backup and recovery solution.

You can’t delete users in Salesforce, but you can freeze or deactivate their accounts. You don’t have to pay for a license for deactivated accounts, but you can still access their historical data.

For most organizations, the CRM data they store in Salesforce is integral to everyday operations and business continuity. If that data is lost or corrupted, it can completely halt productivity—not to mention cause financial and reputational damage, legal disputes, and make the organization (and its partners and customers) vulnerable to fraud.

However, data loss is a part of business—whether caused by human error (such as accidental deletion or even a spilled coffee), natural disaster (such as a fire or flood), or malicious activity (such as a ransomware attack). The question is not whether organizations will experience data loss, but how they will recover from it when it inevitable happens.

Like most SaaS applications, Salesforce operates on a shared responsibility model. This means that they are responsible for maintaining the application’s infrastructure and will offer protection for any faults on their end, e.g., regarding network controls and data centers. They also offer some (limited) options for manual backup within the platform. However, you are responsible for protecting your data from threats beyond Salesforce’s control, such as human error, programmatic error, natural disaster, and cyberthreats.

Because of this, Salesforce themselves recommend investing in a comprehensive, third-party backup and recovery solution like CloudAlly.

CloudAlly captures point-in-time copes of your Salesforce data and metadata and writes those copies out to a secure, secondary storage facility. This means that, in the event of data loss, you can quickly and seamlessly restore lost data to a version that was saved before the data loss incident.

Subscription to the CloudAlly service begins at $30 per user, per year. This includes automatic backup of all your Salesforce data, including Standard Objects, Custom Objects, Chatter Feeds, Attachments, Reports, Dashboards, Emails, Triggers, Workflows, Classes, and metadata—with unlimited data storage and retention.For enterprise organizations looking to secure over 100 accounts, or who have a particularly large quantity of data to backup, contact us for a custom quote.

Yes. If you want to experience how CloudAlly will help your organization before you subscribe, contact us to begin a 14-day free trial. In this time, you will be able to see the benefits of installing the solution.

CloudAlly are ISO 27001 certified (https://www.iso.org/standard/27001). This ensures there is a high level of security and audit procedures in place including pen testing, security procedure, audit controls, etc. We can supply a copy of the ISO certification on request.

CloudAlly is GDPR and HIPAA compliant. The CloudAlly DPA specifically addresses CloudAlly GDPR & PII handling.

You can find more information about CloudAlly security at https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6192d00bee4334aae1d1ab97/63ee2e34cff3088cb12f959f_Security%20Overview%20ConstantEdge.pdf

You can find CloudAlly resources, datasheets, and product brochures here: https://www.constantedge.com/products/cloudally-product/cloudally-resources