Lone Wolf understands the importance of the data in your CRM to your business. Just as you may have backup processes for other critical data across your organization, we strongly recommend setting up a comprehensive data backup and recovery system for the data in your Propertybase Salesforce Edition CRM too.   
 
Now is a great time to make sure your backup and recovery plan meets your organization's current needs, and, in Salesforce, there are a variety of resources to help you do so. 

This document details some common considerations for customers thinking about how to structure their backup and recovery process, some links to resources Salesforce provides, and some popular 3^rd party providers in the Salesforce AppExchange that customers may wish to purchase for a more comprehensive solution.  

Important Considerations for Backup and Data Retention 

As part of your backup process, we encourage you to think not just about backing up some of the more obvious data like customer contact information but also things like Objects, Files, and Metadata. Doing so can assist you in restoring your system after any kind of unexpected event. 

Objects would include things like Account data, Contact data, Enquiry data, Listing data, and all         communications related to those such as emails, call records, notes etc... 

Files includes any document or file type uploaded into your CRM (except photos) 

Metadata describes the relationship between other data within Salesforce such as: 

• DATA- custom objects, picklist value sets, and custom apps. 
• PROGRAMMABILITY – Custom code developed on top of the platform (Flows, Apex classes, and Apex Triggers for instance) 
• PRESENTATION – Customization for how users interact with the platform (components, VisualForce, and Lightning Pages) 
• CUSTOM – Complex data type for custom fields creation and storing information (mappings, business rules, whitelists, and secrets – API Keys) 

Options available for Backup in Salesforce 

Salesforce Native Backup Solutions 

Salesforce offers a wide range of native tools and add-ons to prevent data loss.  

Salesforce Recycle Bin - In the Propertybase Salesforce environment, deleted files stay in the bin for 15 days before being automatically deleted; technically not a backup solution but can provide a small measure of recovery. 

Backup & Restore: Salesforce’s most comprehensive backup solution. Backup & Restore is a paid add-on and will automatically backup as well as restore your objects only in the event of data loss. 

Data Export Service - Allows you to perform a manual or scheduled backup of your data via the Salesforce UI. This will organize your data into a set of CSV files. The data will have to be manually restored if needed 

Data Loader - A Salesforce export wizard that may allow you to recover missing or deleted data that may not be visible in the Recycle Bin UI. 

Report Export - Allows you to export data to Excel or CSV files. This option requires more manual steps but does give you more control over the data you are exporting.  

Change Sets - This tool will export the copy of your metadata to your sandbox. 

3^rd Party Backup Solutions 

This is a short list of some popular solutions available on Salesforce AppExchange that may be more comprehensive and, in most cases, will back up both data (records) and metadata (configuration).  

OwnBackup - Whether you've got one user or one million, OwnBackup proactively prevents you from losing mission-critical data and metadata with automated backups and rapid, stress-free recovery. 

Spanning Backup - we've created backup solutions purpose built for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Salesforce that are secure, affordable, and insanely easy to use. 

Gearset - Gearset is one of the leading DevOps platforms for Salesforce. They also have a comprehensive platform for data and metadata backup. 

AutoRABIT - AutoRABIT’s Salesforce DevOps platform includes a data protection tool called Vault that provides off-platform backup and recovery for Salesforce data and metadata structures. 

VEEAM - Veeam® Backup for Salesforce gives you what others can’t: Complete access and control. You control the backups, you choose the storage. 

In Summary 

Lone Wolf strongly recommends that each Propertybase Salesforce Edition CRM customer develop their own backup strategy for the data in their CRM.  

One of the great advantages of being a part of the Salesforce ecosystem is the ability for customers to choose from a variety of tools through AppExchange that best suits their business needs. Due to the nature of the individual Salesforce customer environments, Lone Wolf does not provide a backup service for customers of this product.  

Of course, this document should in no way replace the need for customers to engage their own IT professionals to develop a comprehensive solution that fits their use case and budget, nor does Lone Wolf provide any guarantees about the suitability of any of the resources linked in this document for a client’s use case or a solution’s compatibility with the customer’s Propertybase Salesforce Edition system configuration. Lone Wolf is not affiliated with any of the 3^rd parties mentioned in this document and customers should do their own due diligence when exploring any 3^rd party solution.  

Additional information to help you backup your data: Backing Up Your Data

Additional information on our Data Backup Policy: Propertybase Data Backup Policy