As the number of data companies that create and manage in Salesforce grows, a Salesforce backup solution has become as vital as the platform itself. As a Salesforce customer (like all SaaS users), you are ultimately responsible for protecting your company’s own data, but how you protect that data is just as important. In a recent study by OwnBackup, over 92% of the respondents surveyed said it was important to keep their backup data separate from the primary data source.
Why do so many people feel strongly about having an independent backup solution in place? The OwnBackup team explains why these backups are so important and what it means for a backup to be truly independent.
The Benefits of Independent Backups
Maintain Business Continuity
To ensure business continuity during unexpected events, it’s been a long-standing technology best practice to keep your backups separate from your production data. The tried, tested, and true “3-2-1” rule of backup states that an organization should have three copies of data on two different media platforms, with one copy of the media placed offsite. By storing your backups separately from your primary Salesforce data, your data will still be accessible during an outage, allowing you to maintain continuity.
Minimize Data Loss
Storing both primary and backup data on the same platform can lead to potential risks, as any incident affecting the primary data, such as accidental deletion or a data breach, can also impact the backup data. By storing your backups on a separate platform, you can ensure they remain insulated from issues affecting the primary data.
Access More Robust Functionality
Selecting a backup solution separate from your primary SaaS provider has advantages beyond accessibility. Typically, vendors focusing solely on backup and recovery will have more robust functionality than a CRM offering a backup solution as an add-on service. These enhanced capabilities can often include granular recovery tools, on-demand backups, backup coverage for metadata, files, and attachments, compliance with HIPAA and GDPR, and more.
Check Your Backups Are Independent
For your Salesforce backup solution to be truly independent, it must meet specific requirement – data must be:
1. Stored separately from the primary data
For a backup to be considered independent, it must first be offsite. Offsite backup is a method of backing up data to a remote server or media that is transported offsite. Cloud backup, for example, stores a copy of your data in a separate or third-party hosted cloud-based server. Because of its scalability and security, cloud backup is an easy way to fulfill the first requirement of an independent backup.
2. Accessed through a separate login than the primary data
Even if cloud backups are offsite and on a different server than the primary data, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are independent. You must also have a separate login to your backups from your primary production data so that you can continue to access your data in the event of an outage. Even though Salesforce has very high uptime, service disruptions can and do happen.
3. Managed with a different vendor than the primary data
Finally, if the same company manages your primary and backup data, you can become too dependent on a single vendor. This can be particularly difficult when negotiating contracts, switching vendors, or terminating services with the primary data vendor (in this case, Salesforce).
Final Thoughts
Looking for a Salesforce backup and recovery solution? As essential as independent backups are, they’re just one requirement of a real backup and recovery solution. Read OwnBackup’s latest eBook to learn what else to prioritize when looking for a solution.