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Get to Know Data Backup and Data Archive

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit you’ll be able to:

  • Explain the difference between data backup and data archive.
  • Describe best practices for data storage strategies.

Data Storage in Education

Education institutions manage high volumes of complex, sensitive data like test scores, financial records, grades, and more. Data is constantly coming in and out, and there’s a lot of it. For example:

  • Data for prospects who may or may not enroll.
  • Student data that needs to be kept for varying lengths of time.
  • Alumni data that potentially spans decades.

Schools need to be intentional about the ways they store and manage data. Data storage may seem straightforward until you notice concepts that appear to overlap, like data backup and data archive. Both methods involve storing copies of your institution’s data outside of your Salesforce org, but they aren’t synonymous. In this quick look we clarify the details of each method and outline best practices for both.

A committee at Cloudy College meets to discuss the institution’s data storage needs.

Data Backup

When you back up data, you make a copy of the records currently in your institution’s Salesforce org and save the copy elsewhere without changing or removing the original records.

The goal of data backup is to create an accessible copy of your data that can be loaded into your org if your active data gets damaged. Backups should be retained as long as the data they contain is actively used in your Salesforce org. We’re talking to you, Advancement shops!

Here are the key components to a good data backup strategy.

Component Description Best Practices

Backup Frequency

Cadence for creating backup copies of your data
  • Use a tool like Data Loader or a third-party backup tool to schedule backups.

  • Start with nightly backups. Frequent backups reduce the number of “one-off” records that have to be fixed after a restore, but backups can consume a lot of storage space over time, so find balance.

  • Time backups so you don’t have new jobs starting before preceding ones finish.

Data Security

Practices that ensure your backups are secure
  • If data is encrypted in your Salesforce org for regulatory or other reasons, backup copies should be encrypted too.

  • Only allow admins to access backed up data.

Continuity Plan

A plan for how to restore your data 
  • Document a process for how to restore backed up data. Review the plan at least annually to ensure accuracy, and periodically test the process by restoring backed up data into a sandbox environment.

  • Document a plan for records that are created or modified between the time of the last backup and the time data is restored.

Data Archive

Like data backups, archived data is stored outside of your Salesforce org, but that's where the similarities end. When you archive data, your goal is long-term storage of records you may need to access for reasons like compliance.

Archived data doesn’t need to be in your active Salesforce org, but it should still be accessible. One common practice is to continue to store aggregates of data in Salesforce even after the supported records are archived. This allows your institution to keep track of useful information, like an alum’s lifetime donation totals, without having to store all of their individual donation records in your production org.

Here are the key components of a good data archive strategy.

Component Description Best Practices

Archive Frequency

Cadence for archiving data in your org  
  • Consider setting different frequencies for different objects. You may archive transactional data like cases and opportunities more frequently than master data like accounts and contacts.  

  • For every data element in your system, define (1) when the records associated with that object will be archived, and (2) when they will be purged.

Data Security

Practices for protecting access to archived data
  • Since archived data may contain sensitive information, limit access to a small group of people who need it to respond to legal requests or compliance-related issues.  

  • Document your policies and put the necessary security controls in place to support your policies.

Accessibility

Strategies to ensure archived data is available when needed
  • Over time your archived data may become misaligned with the format of your production data. Plan for access with this in mind.

  • Ensure the location you choose to store archived data has its own reporting tools so you can directly access the data without restoring it.

Which Method Is Right for My Institution?

Most likely, your institution will need to employ both data backup and data archive. Refer to the data storage strategies for each method and consider which types of data would be best served by backups and archives, respectively. When you’re ready to dive deeper into data strategy for education, continue on to the Constituent-Centric Data Strategies for Education module linked in the Resources section.

Resources

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