A useful bonus for developers: use your backup data to anonymously populate your test environments (sandboxes) with real data. That way, you always test new features against realistic data.
Salesforce backup & recovery: what happens when someone deletes a thousand records?
An employee runs an import incorrectly. A thousand contracts get overwritten. You go to Salesforce to roll it back, and find out you can’t. Salesforce protected the infrastructure, but the content of your mistake is your responsibility.
This is the Shared Responsibility Model: Salesforce secures the platform, you’re responsible for the data on it. When human error, corrupt imports, or unwanted changes happen, without your own backup you’re left with manual exports or expensive recovery services, with no guarantee of completeness. Many organizations only find this out once it’s too late.
The difference between 'we have a backup' and 'we can restore'
Buying a license is simple. Setting up a recovery strategy is a craft. Especially in complex environments (like manufacturing with heavy CPQ logic, or Field Service data), everything is interconnected. When you restore an Account, you want the related Contacts, Orders, and Assets to come along with it, correctly linked.
We give you more than the tool. We give you certainty.
- Independent advice: We work with market leaders such as Own (formerly OwnBackup), Gearset, Flosum, and the native Salesforce backup solution. We advise on what fits your budget and risk profile. We work as an implementation partner. We don’t resell licenses.
- Proactive management: We can take over the monitoring. Did last night’s backup succeed? Are there unusual swings in data volume?
- Restore testing: An untested backup doesn’t count as a backup. We simulate scenarios so we know exactly what to do when things actually go wrong.
Why the Recycle Bin alone isn't enough
We often hear: “But can’t I just restore things from the Recycle Bin?” You can — but it only gets you so far.
Limited retention window
After 15 days, your data is gone for good.
No metadata
If you accidentally delete a complex report, a dashboard, or a workflow, it won’t end up in the Recycle Bin. A proper backup solution also protects your metadata — the structural configuration of your system.
Data corruption
If you accidentally update 10,000 records (say, a bad mass update overwrites everyone’s last name), the Recycle Bin can’t help. You need a point-in-time restore to recover.
Backup capabilities
We implement solutions that go beyond a simple copy.
Automated daily backups
No more manual Weekly Export. Your data and metadata are backed up automatically every hour or every day, with nothing to manage on your end.
Smart alerts
The system flags anything out of the ordinary. If 500 records suddenly disappear on a Sunday afternoon, an alert fires immediately so you can act fast.
Granular restore
You don’t have to restore the entire system (which can take days). You can restore a single record, field, or table to yesterday’s state without overwriting today’s work.
Sandbox seeding
A methodical approach to data loss and recovery time
We approach backup as a risk assessment.
- Risk assessment: How much data can you afford to lose (RPO – Recovery Point Objective)? And how quickly do you need to be back up and running (RTO – Recovery Time Objective)?
- Selection & implementation: We select the right tool and configure it for your environment.
- Training or managed service: We train your team on how to run a restore, or we handle it all for you.
Keep a data incident from bringing your operations to a standstill
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Salesforce back up your data automatically?
The answer is nuanced. Salesforce is responsible for platform availability: if their servers go down, they fix it. But if data is lost or corrupted due to human error (a bad import, accidentally deleted contracts), that’s on you.
Salesforce does give you the option to export your data manually. That’s a useful feature, but restoring those flat export files back into the system correctly is far from straightforward. On top of that, it requires a manual step every time, something that easily gets skipped in the day-to-day rush.
In extreme cases, Salesforce can sometimes initiate a data recovery on your behalf, but it’s a slow, expensive process with no guarantee of full recovery.
What is the Shared Responsibility Model?
This model defines the division of security responsibilities. Salesforce secures the infrastructure (hardware, software). You are responsible for the data within that infrastructure. Without your own backup strategy, you’re on your own when data loss or corruption strikes.
How long does the Recycle Bin retain data?
The Recycle Bin has a limited retention window: after 15 days, your data is gone for good. It also offers no protection against data corruption (records changed incorrectly) and does not back up your Salesforce configuration (metadata).
What is the difference between data and metadata backups?
Data is the content of your system: customer records, contracts, orders, and files. Metadata is the structure: reports, dashboards, and workflows. If you accidentally delete a complex report, you won’t find it in the Recycle Bin. A proper backup solution protects both.
How often should you run restore tests?
Regularly testing your backup and recovery process in practice is essential. Fortunately, most modern tools include automated checks that make day-to-day monitoring straightforward. But technology alone isn’t enough: someone needs to own the actual validation of this process on a regular basis. We help you set up and run these tests so you can have full confidence in your recovery strategy when it matters most.
What do RPO and RTO mean?
These are the terms we use during the risk assessment. RPO (Recovery Point Objective) defines how much data you can afford to lose (how far back in time you’re willing to go). RTO (Recovery Time Objective) defines how quickly you need to be back up and running after an incident.
Is Salesforce's standard Weekly Export not enough?
No. The Weekly Export is a flat data dump (CSV files). It works well for analysis, but it’s useless for recovery. Try manually restoring thousands of records including their relationships (spread across multiple CSV files) and you’re looking at weeks of manual work. A backup tool brings that recovery process down to minutes.
What happens to relationships between records (e.g. accounts and orders) during a restore?
This is exactly why complex environments need specialized tools. Restore an account manually and it gets a new ID, breaking the links to related orders, assets, and contacts. Our solutions restore both the data and the relationships in the correct order, so your CPQ or Service process works straight away.