Salesforce Backup Policy

Defining a Salesforce Backup Policy for Your Company

Every Salesforce org — big or small — needs a proper backup policy. Not because compliance says so, but because one day, something will break, and you’ll have to bring it back. And if you never wrote down how backups work, that day is going to be messy.

Words like “policy” or “strategy” often sound abstract — like something only big corporations care about. But let’s translate this into plain, practical language that actually helps your team.

Core Elements of a Backup Policy

A good backup policy doesn’t need to sound corporate. It just needs to be clear about what’s backed up, how often, where it lives, and who’s responsible.

1. Scope — What We Back Up

Start by writing down what exactly gets backed up. Typical parts include:

Records (Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, etc.)
Files (ContentVersion, Attachments)
Metadata (custom objects, fields, flows, layouts)
Configurations (connected apps, custom settings)

You might not include everything — that’s fine. What matters is that everyone knows what’s in and what’s out.

2. Frequency — How Often It Runs

How often should backups happen?
Here’s a simple rule of thumb:

Daily → important, constantly changing data
Weekly → metadata or reference data
Monthly → long-term archives or rarely used data

It’s not about perfection. It’s about balancing safety and storage costs.

3. Retention — How Long We Keep Stuff

Backups pile up fast. Define when old ones get deleted:

30 days → for regular data
90 days → for metadata
Up to a year → for compliance or legal needs

If you don’t set limits, you’ll wake up one day with 500 GB of backups and no idea why.

4. Access and Security — Who Can See It

Not everyone should be able to touch backups.
Write down:

Who can view or restore backups
Where backups are stored (S3, Postgres, Clickhouse, etc.)
How they’re encrypted
How access is logged or reviewed
Who can restore

Think of backups as sensitive copies of your entire system — if someone gets access to them, they have everything.

Assigning Roles and Responsibilities

A backup policy is only useful if someone actually owns it.

Typical setup:

Backup Owner — defines what’s backed up and when
Admin / DevOps — builds and monitors the automation
Auditor / Security — checks logs and verifies compliance

Even if your backup tool handles everything automatically, there still needs to be a human in charge — especially when something fails.

Compliance and Legal Considerations

If your company handles customer data, compliance is part of the game.
You don’t need to write legal essays — just note what applies:

GDPR — defines how long you can keep personal data
SOX / HIPAA — require traceable, tamper-proof backups
Local data laws — may restrict storage to specific regions

The point is not to sound fancy — it’s to avoid legal surprises later. Another option is to mask the sensitive data where possible to reduce the leak surface.

Automating Enforcement with bakit.io

The best policies don’t live in Google Docs — they live in automation.

bakit.io turns your written policy into scheduled actions:

“Back up all data every 24h”
“Keep last 60 versions”
“Run restore test every Sunday”

Once configured, it enforces what you’ve written — so you don’t rely on memory or manual steps. You define the rules, and bakit.io keeps them running.

Conclusion: Policy Checklist

Before you call it done, check that your policy clearly states:

✅ What’s included
✅ How often it runs
✅ Where it’s stored
✅ Who’s responsible
✅ How long backups stay around
✅ How restores are tested

If all that fits on one page, congrats — you’ve got a real, usable backup policy.
Save it in Git, automate it with bakit.io, and move on to something more fun.

Next Step:
Write your first draft today. Don’t overthink it — start small, automate later.
Future-you (and your Salesforce org) will appreciate it.