Big objects versus Salesforce Connect versus Heroku Connect
Key Takeaway
When data must stay in an outside system but Salesforce users need to search, view, and modify it in Salesforce, use Salesforce Connect. Salesforce Connect shows the data as external objects without copying it into Salesforce.
Big objects, Salesforce Connect, and Heroku Connect are three ways to handle data that is too large for standard and custom objects or that lives outside Salesforce. Big objects store massive amounts of data inside the Salesforce platform. Salesforce Connect shows data that stays in an outside system without copying it. Heroku Connect syncs Salesforce data with a Heroku Postgres database so apps running on Heroku can use it. Choosing between them depends on where the data must live, how much of it there is, and who needs to use it.
What big objects are
A big object stores and manages massive amounts of data on the Salesforce platform. Salesforce recommends big objects for anything over 20 million rows, into the billions. Performance stays consistent whether a big object holds 1 million or 1 billion records.
Big objects use a different kind of database from standard and custom objects. Standard and custom objects use a relational, transactional database. Big objects use a horizontally scalable, distributed, non-transactional database.
Big objects fit three main use cases:
- A 360-degree view of the customer, for example with loyalty, clickstream, or billing data
- Auditing and tracking usage over the long term
- A historical archive that keeps old data available while your core CRM stays fast
A sporting goods retailer keeps the last 12 months of orders in a custom object, where the sales team works with them every day. Each month, the team archives orders older than 12 months into a custom big object. The custom object stays small, so the core CRM stays fast. Years of order history are still available on the Salesforce platform.
There are two kinds of big objects. Standard big objects are defined by Salesforce and are always available, but you can't customize them. One standard big object is FieldHistoryArchive, which stores Field Audit Trail data. Custom big objects are ones you create through Setup or Metadata API to store data unique to your org.