Salesforce Data Storage Basics. How to Manage Costs and Control Limits

The most valuable business resource varies depending on the industry, timing, and other factors. In a modern society, information has long since become the most prized possession for the majority of existing businesses. Being able to efficiently gather, analyze, and process information is one of the biggest goals for most businesses.

Yet, managing information at scale is far from an easy task, with many businesses having a hard time achieving said goal. It is an especially popular topic when it comes to one of the popular Customer Relationship Management solutions such as Salesforce. The average cost for Salesforce storage is extremely high, and there are many limitations to the way Salesforce’s data storage capabilities work that would prevent some of the existing data-saving methods from working.

Data management is not something that can just be ignored in the long run, either. Low performance, problematic data integrity, and expensive storage expansion plans are just a few examples of how this can affect average CRM users. In this context, a proper understanding of Salesforce’s data storage capabilities is essential, including all the limitations and unique characteristics.

Our goal in this article is to provide an explanation of how Salesforce’s storage system operates while also discussing potential strategies that can help maintain company storage with higher efficiency. Other topics that are going to be discussed are storage types, storage cost management, and best practices for data management in the Salesforce environment.

The basics of Salesforce information storage

Data storage in Salesforce can be separated into two or three large groups. The separation between Data storage and File storage is obvious enough, but the third group, called Big Objects, is rarely used outside of large corporate environments, so it is not as important in this basic coverage.

• Data storage represents a part of Salesforce’s storage space that holds data – contacts, accounts, events, opportunities, and so on.
• File storage is a group that covers the entire range of files uploaded into Salesforce, be it photos, attachments, assets, and many other examples.
• Big Objects is a category of custom objects that can store massive data volumes with virtually no performance losses. Common examples of such data include financial transactions and IoT data, among others. 

Big Objects are supposed to work with billions of records with ease, but it is also not the ideal storage option, either. They can only be updated in an asynchronous fashion, and they are incompatible with Validation Rules, Workflow Rules, and several other automation tools from Salesforce.

Backups for Big Objects are surprisingly uncommon when it comes to the market of third-party backup software for Salesforce, and the reasons for that are not entirely clear. To this day, GRAX remains one of the few solutions on the market that offers complete protection to Salesforce data, including Big Objects.

As for the other two storage types – the distinction between the two should be very easy to see. The average size of a single record/file is a lot higher for File storage, yet Data storage stores a lot more records in a single database (since the average record only takes roughly 2 kilobytes of storage in most cases).

Salesforce storage limitations

The amount of storage space Salesforce data can take is only a part of the issue. Another noteworthy part is the total storage volume that Salesforce allocates to each user. The majority of Salesforce licenses receive 10 GB of file storage and data storage each, along with additional storage calculated from the number of user licenses attached to an organization. The exact storage volume per license would differ greatly depending on the license level and other factors. 

The table below presents the majority of storage allocation limits that Salesforce provides to its end users.

The exact limitations and other information are subject to change; visit Salesforce’s help page to learn up-to-date information. It should also be noted that different Salesforce licenses also have their own limitations when it comes to certain actions – number of custom objects, number of external objects, number of fields, and so on. Learn more on the dedicated Salesforce help page.

Running out of storage in Salesforce

Salesforce itself has a very unconventional approach when it comes to exceeding storage limitations. There is no noticeable notification for whether your company exceeds its storage capacity, and most users report being able to work with about 110% of their storage limitations before issues start appearing.

On the other hand, these issues have the potential of completely paralyzing the entire environment in minutes since most features and actions would start spouting error messages, and the environment would refuse to upload or create any new file or record, respectively. 

As such, keeping an eye out for general storage consumption in Salesforce is highly recommended for a number of reasons that have the potential of significantly disrupting the operational state of an organization. 

The cost of Salesforce information storage

Purchasing additional storage from Salesforce itself when you are close to your current limits seems like an obvious option. The process of doing so is also simple – go to Setup > Your Account > Browse & Buy and locate the File Storage section. While you are most likely bewildered by the storage price, we would like to go over several important factors:

• Salesforce storage is extraordinarily expensive, and the cloud-centric nature of the platform means that the storage cost is added to an organization’s spending as a monthly or annual payment instead of a one-time purchase.
• File storage and data storage have different pricing points, with the latter being the more expensive of the two (considering how small is the size of an average record vs an average file).
• Purchasing a year of “storage” in advance is usually cheaper than paying on a monthly basis, but there are also discounts for buying in bulk.

The exact up-to-date storage pricing from Salesforce is difficult to locate since it might differ depending on multiple factors. Here is the information from early 2023 about the cost of data storage in Salesforce:

There is also the file storage cost in Salesforce from the same time frame:

With prices like these, it might be a wise idea to consider a third-party alternative as a means of storage expansion. A lot of noteworthy cloud storage providers, such as Google or Amazon, offer massive storage volumes for a much lower pricing point (18$ per month for 5 TB in Google Workspace Business Plus, $2.5 per 1 TB after the first 5 GB of free storage from AWS S3). 

These options would require some customization to integrate third-party storage with Salesforce. While manual integrations are possible, solutions like GRAX simplify the process by providing a streamlined way to move data into third-party storage while making it accessible to end users in Salesforce through Lightning Web Components.

Best practices for storage management and cost reduction in Salesforce

If the recommendation to purchase more storage is out of the question, the next obvious piece of advice would be to monitor the state of your Salesforce storage on a regular basis. Salesforce also has a built-in alerting functionality that can be configured as a reminder of when the system is above a certain threshold in terms of storage.

Storage usage monitoring features are not particularly complex in Salesforce and cannot offer much outside of a Storage Usage page – a detailed breakdown of your storage consumption, which can be found under:

• Setup > Data > Storage Usage

This single screen provides a centralized source of information on how your organization works with storage in Salesforce, including storage usage per data, file, or big object, as well as the list of top storage consumers. It is also possible to receive a detailed explanation of how each user’s storage consumption is tracked and calculated, if necessary. However, this is the extent of what Salesforce can do in terms of data monitoring, and any additional capabilities to this process can only be acquired by using a third-party solution instead.

The context of Salesforce data allows us to treat both storage optimization methods and storage cost reduction methods as essentially one and the same since they both lead to the same goal. With that in mind, we can present a number of valuable recommendations on how Salesforce storage can be optimized for lower data consumption.

Implementation of Record Types

Record Types is a feature of Salesforce that can improve the record management process in certain ways. This method might not provide a direct effect when it comes to storage reduction, but it does contribute to storage management indirectly by providing better information organization and reducing data duplication.

Record Types can be used in data categorization and field layout customization, but the most notable advantage of this tool is to customize all kinds of fields, processes, and layouts for the same object in different categories, dramatically reducing the number of records and custom objects that have to be created.

Attachment compression

Attachments and other file types uploaded to Salesforce can take a significant amount of space, even if they are stored in a separate storage environment. Compressing the biggest files in a Salesforce environment can offer dramatic storage savings with a relatively low effort.

The easiest way to do so is the manual compression method. It includes downloading large attachments to a local workstation, compressing them using one of many tools such as WinRar or 7Zip, and then uploading the compressed attachment back to Salesforce while deleting the original.

The method in question might seem relatively easy, but it also has a lot of downsides to it:

• Potential security risk;
• Performance loss while working with compressed attachments;
• Long time required to process large attachments;
• Compatibility issues with common archive formats.

Data compression as an industrial feature might also be present in certain third-party data management solutions, but their capabilities and limitations would also differ drastically from one case to another, as would their advantages. 

Data storage solutions vary in their approach to managing Salesforce attachments and their associated costs. While some solutions focus on compression techniques with varying degrees of complexity and trade-offs, alternative approaches like GRAX offer a more straightforward solution: archiving attachments directly to customer-owned cloud storage while maintaining accessibility through Salesforce’s Lightning Web Components. 

This approach eliminates the need for complex compression rules or decompression delays, reducing platform storage costs while ensuring users can still seamlessly access their attachments through the Salesforce interface.

Data archival

It would be fair to mention that data compression and data archival in the context of Salesforce are completely different processes, even if both of them use the term “archive” to a certain degree. Data archiving in Salesforce is a process of collecting outdated or irrelevant information and moving it to a dedicated location without cutting access to said information. 

There are multiple approaches that Salesforce can take to archive information:

• Manual archiving.
• Built-in data archiving capabilities (Big Objects).
• Data extraction into a data warehouse.
• Salesforce Archive – a recently unveiled native archiving solution.
• Third-party solutions for data archiving. 

Each method has its own use cases and limitations (with the aforementioned Big Objects being one of several built-in archiving measures that are rarely protected by third-party solutions themselves). 

Archiving as a whole also has a few overarching disadvantages, such as:

• The limitation on the number of records stored (1 million records stored in Big Objects for a single organization).
• Risk of losing information during the archiving process (mostly relevant to manual archiving methods).
• Limited availability (Big Objects is only available to certain Salesforce licensing tiers, such as Personal, Group, Contact Manager, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer).
• Potential impact on Salesforce performance (archived information is stored in a compact form and is often stored in a slower storage than the primary Salesforce environment).
• Lackluster feature set (Salesforce Archive operates as a native solution but might not be flexible enough to cover the needs of more complex organizations).

As a result, archiving is not a definitive solution to storage consumption issues, but it can improve the situation to a certain degree, improving system performance and reducing storage consumption in the primary Salesforce environment while remaining compliant with various regulations and legal frameworks when it comes to sensitive information. 

However, using one of the third-party archiving solutions such as GRAX is often the only way to acquire all of the benefits from this process due to the limitations of Salesforce’s own capabilities.

Data cleanup

Something as simple as a data cleanup can also be used as a means of saving storage space. Unused fields and records are one such example, with Salesforce being able to identify those with relative ease. The data in question can be deleted manually or using a dedicated tool (be it from Salesforce or from a third party).

While there is a Recycle Bin functionality in Salesforce, it can only hold data for 15 days at a time, and there is no way to restore information once it has been erased from the Recycle Bin. However, this kind of limitation is only relevant to the built-in measures of Salesforce, which also have a number of other limitations that are worth mentioning. For example, the Mass Delete option cannot delete different record types in the same operation and does not allow for over 250,000 records to be deleted at once.

The same logic can be applied to AppExchange apps – they can be limited in terms of what they can delete and might also require additional time to purchase and configure before being operational and useful. Luckily, solutions such as GRAX excel at multifaceted data management and offer simple deployment process from AppExchange market.

The fact that Salesforce operates as an interconnected web of records and objects does leave the possibility that mass deletion might break certain relationships, creating all kinds of unpredictable issues as a result. Some organizations in certain industries will also be prevented from deleting certain information if they are subject to compliance or regulatory frameworks.

Custom settings implementation

The usage of Custom Settings in Salesforce is another way to improve redundancy by storing and managing configuration information outside of standard objects. Custom Settings employ their own separate storage type – Setup Configuration Data – that does not fall under the same limitations as regular storage.

Custom Settings make it possible to access frequently used data without relying on long-form SOQL queries, improving data management efficiency. The ability to centralize common values in Custom Settings also drastically reduces the number of redundant records in Salesforce databases, saving storage space as a result.

Data retention policies

Data retention as a feature can help a lot with managing Salesforce storage in the long term since it can be used to either delete or archive certain data formats or records after a specific period of time. 

The fact that only the most relevant information is kept in the Salesforce storage not only improves the overall storage management capabilities but also reduces the possibility of a storage limit being exceeded.

There is also the topic of company-mandated policies about data retention, with certain companies in the financial services department having a strict requirement on all data being stored for a certain number of years before it can be deleted.

However, these policies have to be configured with a certain degree of thoroughness to avoid unintentional deletion or archiving. There is also the fact that Salesforce can only provide a very small selection of automation capabilities for data retention purposes (such as the Event Monitoring tool from Salesforce Shield or the creation of completely custom Time-Based Workflow Rules). 

As such, the only reasonable avenue for in-depth data retention management would be to look into purchasing a third-party data management solution, explained in more detail below.

Third-party data management software

At the end of the day, the most common piece of advice for data management problems in Salesforce would be to purchase one of many third-party data management solutions on the market. The most common tools that a third-party solution can offer to reduce storage costs in a Salesforce environment are:

• Backup and restore capabilities
• Disaster recovery capabilities
• Multiple storage types for improved redundancy
• Extensive data monitoring
• Flexible data archiving capabilities
• Customizable data retention policies, and so on.

Solutions such as GRAX offer an extensive feature set for data backup, archiving, and management that dramatically exceeds the capabilities of Salesforce itself without being overly expensive. It offers a complete feature set to cover the entire lifecycle of information, effectively managing information from its creation up until its deletion.

The topic of data management solutions and measures is going to be explained in more detail below.

Native and third-party data management solutions in Salesforce

Native Salesforce data management tools

Salesforce offers a respectable selection of built-in tools for data management and similar tasks. They can be used to monitor data usage, automate cleanup, and streamline data management workflows. Three of the most noteworthy examples of such tools are:

• Data Loader makes it possible to manage large data volumes in bulk; it can export, update, insert, and delete information at scale. It is a great tool for deleting or moving unnecessary information, reducing the time it takes to free up valuable storage space for other purposes.
• Mass Delete is much more case-specific; it can only delete different records in standard objects and practically nothing else. The primary use case for Mass Delete is to clean up unused or old records that take up storage space, which can be used for other purposes.
• Salesforce Optimizer is a reporting solution for specific Salesforce instances. It can offer a variety of information about storage consumption while also making it easy to identify potential ways to improve the situation. Salesforce Optimizer’s reports are an important part of being able to take proactive steps for storage optimization purposes to avoid breaking the storage limit of the organization.
• Salesforce Backup is a native backup solution in the Salesforce environment that offers a respectable number of capabilities in this department. It can automate backups, restore a select number of specific objects, export information, and so on. It also encrypts information both in transit and at rest for added security.
• Salesforce Archive is one of the more recent developments in Salesforce’s native toolset that offers data management capabilities for organizations with large data sets. It has a number of useful capabilities, including custom archiving policies, comprehensive monitoring, and seamless data access. The native status of the solution also makes it adhere to the strict security policies of the Salesforce environment, making it easier to achieve compliance with many data retention regulations.

None of these tools is particularly complex or sophisticated, which also simplifies the recommendations when it comes to their usage. Regular Optimizer reports can offer a multitude of information about the current state of the storage, while the usage of Mass Delete or Data Loader can help with managing large portions of the storage with an impressive level of convenience. Salesforce Backup and Archive can offer basic backup and archiving capabilities, respectively, making them a convenient option for smaller or less complex businesses without intricate demands when it comes to data security or retention.

Third-party Salesforce data management tools

The true versatility in terms of data management and data security for Salesforce comes in the form of third-party solutions and applications. These solutions often provide an extraordinary feature set that vastly exceeds the built-in capabilities of Salesforce in certain areas – be it data management, disaster recovery, etc. Here are a number of examples of such software:

• GRAX is a powerful data management solution for Salesforce. It combines storage management capabilities with extensive data archiving and in-depth backup tasks. The data archiving ability alone can dramatically reduce total storage costs while also retaining the company’s access to outdated information that might be useful for some purpose in the future – and all of that is without leaving the Salesforce UI.

• Spanning Backup offers extensive data protection features without making the software itself challenging to work with. It can provide data archival, record recovery, and automated backup operations with granular restore capabilities.
• OwnBackup is another variation of a third-party backup solution for Salesforce, with archiving and backups being its primary offerings. However, OwnBackup is no longer an independent backup solution when we consider the most recent news, which is why its current state and the level of control over its integration with the Salesforce environment remain unclear for the foreseeable future.

The exact feature set of each solution differs in most cases, but the majority of basic use cases stay the same, and storage management improvements are always on the top of that list.

Version control and data compliance are just a few examples of how third-party backup software can assist with Salesforce’s data storage management tasks. Add that to the aforementioned combination of backups, disaster recovery, archiving, and data security – and it would become clear why the involvement of such solutions is highly advised in many situations.

Conclusion

Proper data storage management in Salesforce is paramount to maintaining high business efficiency, but it requires a certain level of understanding of how the entire system works to be able to avoid performance bottlenecks, control storage costs, and so on. Organizations can use all the different methods discussed above to optimize their storage consumption by monitoring storage limits, understanding the capabilities of built-in tools, and leveraging third-party solutions when necessary.

Both solution groups offer their own share of use cases for data management. Data Loader simplifies mass deletion of records, Salesforce Optimizer offers an extensive overview of the storage environment, but third-party solutions provide an advanced feature range for archiving, backup, protection, and more.

Evaluating your current Salesforce environment is a good first step towards better efficiency. Performing archiving tasks for outdated information is also a good starting point, and the same goes for cleaning up unimportant records or fields. However, third-party software such as GRAX is recommended for a more in-depth approach to data storage management, with extensive storage optimization, improved data security, and so on.

Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of penalty does Salesforce enact for exceeding storage limitations?

There is no penalty for going over 100% of your total storage capacity per se. However, using about 110% of storage capacity would most likely lead to a more or less complete system paralysis, with the refusal to upload new files or records, as well as many other issues in the system.

It should be noted that overstepping these limitations is not recommended at all due to the fact that some of these issues have the potential to disrupt an organization’s day-to-day workflow, resulting in revenue losses and other issues. As such, purchasing additional Salesforce storage in advance or establishing a data archiving solution is the preferred alternative for these kinds of situations.

Is it possible to set up automatic archival rules with Salesforce’s built-in capabilities?

While Salesforce can offer both manual (Big Objects) and automated (Salesforce Archive) data archival capabilities, they might not be versatile or flexible enough for organizations with complex environment structures or specific data retention requirements. As such, the involvement of third-party archiving solutions is still recommended to most large organizations in Salesforce.

What kind of compliance risks are associated with storing information outside of the Salesforce environment?

Any kind of compliance risk is only possible if the third-party storage solution itself is not compliant with a specific regulation, be it GDPR, HIPAA, etc. Luckily, most major cloud storage environments do have the capability to offer all the necessary security levels to be compliant with specific standards. If the standards are not met, then the usage of third-party data management solutions like GRAX can support compliance needs.