Jim is the IT manager of a leading health insurance company based in Brooklyn, NY. The organization uses Salesforce, and over the last two years saw its customer data grow exponentially as a result of a massive increase in the number of subscribers to its products after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jim’s company decided to archive some of its unused data using a cloud-based solution. But the huge volumes of archived data has resulted in the insurance provider pay substantial amounts to the provider of the archiving solution. Jim’s team estimates that the cost of archiving the data will only continue to increase with each passing year as the company expects a significant growth in its customer-related data owing to a substantial growth in its business.
Will is the data security head of a leading multinational Over-the-top (OTT) solutions provider that uses Salesforce. The company uses a cloud-powered data archiving solution to store its data. Recently, the provider of the cloud-based solution reported a breach in the security of solution; a detailed analysis revealed data pertaining to more than 400 million customers of the OTT company was stolen. The findings evoked sharp criticism from the company’s customers and resulted in a flurry of lawsuits against it.
Do these stories sound similar? Many users of Salesforce systems (or for that matter most IT platforms) are moving to the cloud. In fact, a recent study showed the global market for cloud computing systems is expected to register a Cumulative Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19.1% between 2021 and 2028, touching the 1.25 trillion USD mark at the end of the 7-year period. But despite the rapid growth in the demand for cloud-hosted solutions, many companies are preferring on-premises data storage products for 5 major reasons. We will now look at these reasons, in detail.
- Full Control over the Data
This is arguably the most important reason why several organizations are going in for on-premises systems to archive their Salesforce data. An on-premises data storage solution will help you have complete control over your data, as it never leaves your organization. A robust data-archiving system on your premises helps you decide how to store the data, where it should be stored and who should access it. In a nutshell, you are the master of the Salesforce data archival mechanism.
- Complete Security of the Data
Over the last few years, data security has become the primary concern of companies across the globe. As the number of cybercrimes grow in number and sophistication with each passing day, businesses are grappling to protect their data from falling into wrong hands. A cloud-based data archiving system is owned and managed by a third party, and this means a Salesforce-using company has no role in ensuring the protection of its data. Many providers of cloud-hosted data storage solutions provide assurances that the data of their customers will be absolutely safe. But, in practice, no vendor can guarantee complete security of data. You don’t face this problem if you store your data on your premises. You can design and implement a mechanism that fully meets your data security requirements.
- Enhanced Cost Effectiveness
Many companies believe using an on-premises data archival system is fraught with high expenditure, as they need to procure the required hardware, acquire licenses to various software tools, install the system and ensure its proper maintenance. While this is true to a certain extent, cloud-based systems aren’t cheap either. As the volume of data to be archived increases substantially, so does the cost of using the cloud-hosted system. You must keep in mind although you may incur substantial expenditure to set up a Salesforce data archival mechanism on your premises, it’s still worth the investment as you can ensure full compliance to applicable statutes and access the data in no time. More about these aspects in a moment.
- Seamless Compliance to Data Statutes
One of the major advantages of archiving data using an on-premises system is you can ensure full compliance to all applicable rules prescribed by regulatory authorities. Many regulatory agencies stipulate norms about storage of data such as who can access the data, how long it should be stored and where it should be stored. For instance, the European Data Protection Board, which oversees the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), mandates that all data pertaining to citizens of the European Union (EU) be stored within the borders of the EU. Although several cloud-based data archiving solutions providers assure their customers about compliance with data storage location norms, the organizations don’t have any real control over where their data is stored. There will be no such problems with an on-premises archiving system.
- Hassle-free Scaling Capabilities
Another key benefit of using an on-premises solution to archive your Salesforce data is you can scale your data storage abilities with ease; all you need to do is add new hardware and/or software; while this may require a little effort, you have many advantages in terms of efficiency and utilization of resources, which may not be possible with a cloud-based solution. And once you scale down, after a decrease in demand, you just have to put the additional resources aside. It’s as simple as that.
As you can see, you can enjoy the above-mentioned benefits by archiving your Salesforce data on your premises. At Workbox, we help you develop the right data archival strategy that fully meets your data storage requirements. Our rich experience gained serving several companies across the industry spectrum coupled with our strong emphasis on comprehending the requirements enables us to provide the perfect solution that ensures the highest ROI.
Hope you liked this post. How do you archive your Salesforce data? We’d love to know.