From data encryption to event monitoring and compliance, Salesforce Shield offers a wide range of powerful capabilities to help users achieve their objectives with confidence and ease.
This robust set of tools is designed to enhance data security, privacy, and compliance within the Salesforce platform. In this comprehensive guide, we will dive into the features, pros, and cons of Shield and explore how businesses can amplify their Salesforce data management capabilities through a self-hosted solution.
Unmasking the Features of Salesforce Shield
Salesforce Shield provides powerful features for safeguarding critical information within a Salesforce org. Additionally, Shield’s features provide granular control over data access and usage, ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulations. The biggest features offered with Shield include:
Event Monitoring: Safeguarding Your Data Activity
Salesforce Shield’s Event Monitoring is a powerful tool that helps businesses monitor user activities, login attempts, and critical data changes. By providing real-time insights into who is accessing information, companies can quickly respond to potential security threats and maintain control over their Salesforce environment. With its strong oversight capabilities, Salesforce Shield’s Event Monitoring acts like a guard, keeping your data safe and secure.
Field Audit Trail: A Time Machine for Your Data Changes
The Field Audit Trail feature is like a time machine for your data. It helps businesses track changes to important fields over time. This is important for following regulations and also for auditing purposes. It gives businesses a way to see detailed information about changes that were made. They can also go back to previous versions of records if needed. This helps protect against accidental or harmful changes to data.
Platform Encryption: Fortifying Your Data Security
Platform Encryption serves as a standout feature. It encrypts data when stored, which means that even if someone unauthorized gains access, the data will still be unreadable without the encryption key. This is especially important for highly regulated industries like healthcare and finance, which have strict rules on data protection and must ensure sensitive information is kept safe.
Encryption of PII: Ensuring Compliance
Businesses handling Personally Identifiable Information (PII) must comply with data protection laws. Salesforce Shield provides powerful tools for encrypting PII, which helps keep customer data confidential and compliant with regulations like GDPR and HIPAA. By using Salesforce Shield, businesses can avoid legal issues and build trust with their customers, who appreciate having their data handled with care.
Utilizing these features makes Salesforce Shield an indispensable solution for businesses that value data security, privacy, and regulatory compliance.
Pros of Salesforce Shield
Salesforce Shield offers businesses many advantages. It helps businesses manage their digital activities more efficiently and provides customers with a seamless and secure experience. By using Salesforce Shield, businesses can elevate their data management practices and empower themselves to create a secure and resilient Salesforce environment. The following benefits highlight how Salesforce Shield can help achieve these goals:
Enhanced Security
As stated above, Salesforce Shield provides an extra layer of security, helping businesses protect their most sensitive information. The combination of event monitoring, field audit trail, and platform encryption creates a comprehensive shield against potential data breaches and unauthorized access.
Regulatory Compliance
In an era of ever-evolving data protection regulations, compliance is non-negotiable. Salesforce Shield’s features are tailored to meet the requirements of various regulatory frameworks, making it an ideal choice for businesses operating in highly regulated industries.
Granular Control
Salesforce Shield enables businesses to closely monitor and control user activities. With Shield, companies can customize access permissions, track changes, and encrypt specific fields. This allows for a more tailored approach to Salesforce data management that aligns with business needs.
Cons of Salesforce Shield
When considering the benefits of Salesforce Shield, it’s important to also be aware of potential challenges that can arise when implementing this tool. As with any powerful technology, there are some downsides to consider.
Cost
While the benefits of Salesforce Shield are undeniable, the additional security and compliance features come at a cost. Businesses need to weigh the investment against the value gained, particularly if they operate in industries with less stringent data protection requirements.
Complex Implementation
Implementing and configuring Salesforce Shield may pose a challenge for administrators unfamiliar with its advanced features. The initial learning curve could require additional time and resources, and businesses must be prepared for this when integrating Salesforce Shield into their CRM environment.
Limited Native Backup and Recovery
While Salesforce Shield enhances data security, it may not provide a comprehensive native backup and recovery solution. Businesses might need to invest in additional tools or strategies to ensure comprehensive data protection and recovery capabilities.
Fortifying the Future of Business with Salesforce Shield
At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that data security and compliance are not just checkboxes but the foundation upon which trust and success are built. Salesforce Shield stands as a strong guardian, offering businesses the tools they need to navigate the complex terrain of data protection.
While the pros of Salesforce Shield, such as enhanced security, regulatory compliance, and granular control, are evident, businesses can elevate their data management game by opting for a self-hosted Salesforce solution. The complete data ownership, customized security measures, and scalability provided by a self-hosted approach empower businesses to fortify their CRM environment according to their unique needs.
With the added advantage of a self-hosted Salesforce solution like CapStorm, businesses can confidently grow, knowing that their data is not just managed but mastered.
A Self-Hosted Solution Like CapStorm Is Your Shield Ally
While Salesforce Shield offers a robust set of tools for data security and compliance, businesses can further enhance their data management capabilities by opting for a self-hosted Salesforce data management solution like CapStorm. Here’s how a self-hosted approach can add extra benefits for users:
Complete Data Ownership
Choosing a self-hosted Salesforce solution means complete data ownership. Businesses have unrestricted control over their data, from storage to backup and recovery. This level of autonomy is invaluable, especially for enterprises with specific data governance requirements or those operating in regions with stringent data sovereignty laws.
Customized Security Measures
Self-hosted solutions offer businesses the flexibility to implement customized security measures that align with their unique requirements. With a self-hosted solution, you can extend the Salesforce Shield rules to off-platform data, such as obfuscating data at the field level to protect against bad actors. From a user access standpoint, the ability to customize these controls for your data at rest is also critical to maintaining data integrity. Tailoring these security measures ensures that businesses address specific vulnerabilities and threats relevant to their operations.
Scalability
A self-hosted Salesforce solution provides scalability without relying on external parties. Businesses can scale their CRM environment at their own pace, without being bound by the limitations of a shared cloud infrastructure. This is particularly beneficial for rapidly expanding enterprises that require a CRM solution that can seamlessly grow with their evolving needs.
CapStorm’s CS:Govern solution automatically mimics Salesforce Shield rules to create a mirror image of Salesforce off-platform. This mirror acts as a staging database for integrations, analytics, and disaster recovery, all with the same protections in place with Salesforce Shield.
Are you curious to learn more about how CapStorm is the perfect partner to level up your Shield experience? Reach out to our experts today!
