Salesforce sandboxes have several benefits to a business when it comes to software development for business growth. With them, you can create a sandbox that is a duplicate copy of your organization in a different environment.
The task is more or less like copy-pasting your business on another page keeping its original work intact. With the help of a Salesforce Sandbox, you can effectively explore and play around with unique features for testing and coding. There is no fear of losing data, and the operations of the business will not be hindered in any way!
A crucial component of Salesforce change is the inclusion of sandboxes. Besides being employed in a small company with hardly any customization, any attempt to incorporate personalized solutions or automation in the live environment is a stressful affair.
Of course, you can make dashboards and reports or even add some items to the pick lists in the company’s live org; however, if you make one error in the Process Builder or in any workflow in the company, you risk harming your business and can bring it to a complete halt.
So, how does a sandbox help?
Using a sandbox helps you to create and test business processes in a safe, controlled environment without hampering day-to-day business operations. After you are sure that the new workflow or automation created will blend into your present programming, you get the green signal to proceed and promote it into your live org. Note sandboxes come in some different varieties, and you are able to view its different names in this article.
An insight into the different kinds of sandboxes
As a business owner, you should be aware of the different types of sandboxes, and when you should use them. Given below is a brief description of each kind of sandboxes with some simple examples-
- Developer- These sandboxes are intended for testing or coding in isolated environments. The metadata of your organization is included in these sandboxes and can be refreshed once in 29 days. The storage limits of these sandboxes are based on the volume of production in your organization.
- Developer Pro- These Sandboxes are like the Developer Sandboxes are used for coding or testing. They, too, involve the metadata of your business org. However, these sandboxes have a larger storage limit over the Developer Sandbox. This means you get more space for testing large data sets that are robust in nature. This gives you the opportunity to operate better quality assurance checks. These sandboxes can be refreshed once daily.
- Partial Data Copy- These sandboxes contain metadata and a subset of the production data of your business. The data subset’s definition can be found in the template of the sandbox. This sandbox should be used when you wish to do testing and coding on the data that is from your org. It can be refreshed once in 5 days.
- Full- This sandbox is a copy of all the production organizations, including object records, attachments, and metadata of the business. This sandbox is different from the rest because the data inside is not a live copy. You will have a refresh limit with regard to how often you can update this data in the sandbox that is used mainly for testing once the coding or development is completed in the Dev or the Dev Pro Sandbox. This allows you to see how your new business workflow or process is reacting to the data. Note when you are making a full sandbox, you get the opportunity to include the volume or field tracking as well as Chatter activity you wish to. By default, the option for field tracking is off; however, you can enable this feature and capture 180 days of its history. Experts in the Salesforce sandbox state that if the business uses the Chatter option, its feed data can be overwhelming, especially if this data is used extensively. So, you might not wish to keep the Chatter feed in areas of testing.
Additional information
Given below is some additional information about the limits applied to the use of sandboxes for your business-
- A Full Sandbox can be refreshed 29 days after its creation or last refresh. In case you delete any Full Sandbox in 29 days, you will have to wait for a period of 29 days to end for replacing it.
- A Partial Copy Sandbox can be refreshed five days after you have last refreshed or created it. In the event of its deletion, you need to wait till the end of the fifth day from the last creation or refresh to replace it.
- The Developer Pro and the Developer Sandbox can be refreshed once daily.
- The Enterprise Edition has a license for one Developer Sandbox.
- The Performance Edition comes with licenses for one Full Sandbox, one Partial Copy Sandbox, five Developer Pro Sandboxes, and 30 Developer Sandboxes.
- The Unlimited Edition comes with licenses for one Full Sandbox, five Developer Pro Sandboxes, and 15 Developer Sandboxes.
Given below are the storage limits that are applicable to Sandboxes for your organization-
- The Partial Copy Sandboxes contain 5GB of files and have a storage limit of 5GB data.
- The Developer Pro Sandboxes contain 1GB of files and have a storage limit of 1GB of data.
- Developer Sandboxes contain 200MB of files and can store 200MB of data.
- Full sandboxes have similar storage limits as the production organization.
- Sandboxes will not send out notifications to your email when they reach storage limits. In case you have reached the storage limits, you will not be able to save new data. In order to check the storage limits, you should go to Setup and select the option for Data Management>Storage Usage in the sandbox.
Therefore, in conclusion, it can be said that using Salesforce Sandboxes are great for a business. You just need a few clicks for creating a copy of your production environment for the company. With them, you are able to custom data and track good quality assurance for your business with peace of mind that your business operations will never be hampered, boosting peace of mind in the process.
