Here are nine common reasons why you most probably need to have an independent backup of your Salesforce instance.
- Human error: Administrator
Even expert Salesforce admins are human. It is easy and very tempting to upload or change data on-the-fly on a production system.
However, any mistake can quickly propagate and ruin the integrity of the data and system. When administrators use tools like Data Loader mass amounts of data can be overwritten in seconds. Data Loader is capable of inputting, updating or completely delete up to five million records at one time.
- Human error: Users
Even users without administrator permissions, just regular user permissions can cause major data loss incidents and not everything can be restored from the recycle bin.
Even simple actions like accidentally merging the wrong two user accounts can cause contacts, opportunities and contracts to get irreparably jumbled up.
- Human error: Developers
Given the complex configurations, workflows and formulas in Apex even a slight mistake can wreak havoc across Salesforce objects.
For large installations, configuration changes happen daily, and internal pressures to make changes quickly could lead to short-cuts in testing and deployment that end in disaster.
- Human error: Overprivileged users
It’s very common for someone outside of IT, for example senior people in marketing, sales or finance
to have administrator access for Salesforce, when really they shouldn’t.
Often system administrator privileges are given to a group of people from these different departments within an organisation when the system is first set-up. But further down the line often those privileges never get reviewed or removed.
This leaves the system vulnerable to accidental or potentially even malicious damage, simply because people were able to make changes that should not have been able to make.
- Outages and Failures: Salesforce
Outages and data loss are a risk for any computer system including Salesforce.
- Integration errors
Salesforce has a multitude of plug-ins and integration features that alter or move data, all of which are routinely subject to updates. This can commonly result in data loss or corruption to data or metadata.
Newly installed or updated applications can cause items like custom objects and fields to be added
or modified which then cause problems with overwriting data, duplicating data or having the same field appear in different places.
- Data corruption: accidental
Salesforce administrators can move large volumes of data or consolidate data with ease, but that equally means that mistakes are just as easy to make. Accidental data overwriting or deleting during these processes are very common.
- Data corruption: malicious
With just a few clicks any user can overwrite customer information. A disgruntled employee with administrative access with could easily change large amounts of critical information before
leaving their job. Viruses can also be another vector of attack and potential data loss.
- Poor data hygiene
A common situation with Salesforce is that an administrator can identify fields or datasets that are either duplicated, incorrect or no longer needed, but they are afraid to delete them in case of
a mistake. This can create a fear of change and of performing proper house-keeping. Having a reliable backup of the data available means such changes are easier to make in safety.
Conclusion
Whatever the size of your organisation, backing up your Salesforce data and metadata is something that should not be put off or ignored. It is your Salesforce data, you control it and it is your responsibility to protect it.
A simple mistake can happen at any time, but not being prepared can result in massive data loss and heavily damage your organisation. Being proactive and having the right backup solution in place can help lessen the impact of any unfortunate event.
Act Now
EOBackup can help you deploy your Salesforce back-up right now, just sign-up now and get going. Our service with its unique management portal, powered on the back-end by software from Veeam, one of the world’s top backup software vendors, puts you in control of your Salesforce backup and recovery strategy.