Salesforce ArchitectureArchitect (Hardest)data-strategyretentionarchival
Design enterprise data retention tiering across Salesforce and external archive
Real World Scenario
Legal requires 10-year Case retention; Salesforce storage costs triple; performance degrades on 30M Case org.
Expected Answer
• Hot tier active Cases in Salesforce 24 months operational
• Warm Big Object or Salesforce Archive 24 months to 7 years
• Cold S3 glacier legal archive 7 to 10 years search via index
• Automated tier transition Flow or ETL on close date plus age
• Legal hold suspends tier movement per matter
• Restore workflow cold to warm for litigation rare documented
• Cost model per tier vs all-Salesforce storage
Follow-Up Questions & Answers
Click to expand — each follow-up includes a direct, interview-ready answer
Main difference: use case and scale. Hot tier active Cases in Salesforce 24 months operational. Warm Big Object or Salesforce Archive 24 months to 7 years. Pick based on your integration pattern and team capability. Retention tiering is architecture plus legal—design at petabyte scale before storage crisis. Document the decision in an ADR and align with enterprise standards.
Architect Perspective
Retention tiering is architecture plus legal—design at petabyte scale before storage crisis.