Ace Your Data-Architect Application Architect Exam

The best data archiving strategies for UC are to use Big objects and Heroku with external objects. Big objects allow storing large amounts of data on the Salesforce platform without affecting performance or storage limits. They also support point-and-click tools, triggers, and Apex code. Heroku is a cloud platform that can host external databases and integrate with Salesforce using external objects. External objects enable on-demand access to external data sources via standard Salesforce APIs and user interfaces. Using bulk API to hard delete cases from Salesforce will free up storage space and improve performance.

The three key steps that a data architect should take when merging data from multiple systems into Salesforce are:

Analyze each system’s data model and perform gap analysis. This step involves understanding the structure and meaning of the data in each system, identifying the common and unique data elements, and mapping the data fields between the systems. This step also involves assessing the quality and consistency of the data, and identifying any data cleansing or transformation needs.

Utilize an ETL tool to merge, transform, and de-duplicate data. This step involves using an ETL tool to connect to the source systems, extract the data, apply any data transformations or validations, and load the data into Salesforce. This step also involves applying de-duplication rules or algorithms to avoid creating duplicate records in Salesforce.

Work with stakeholders to define record and field survivorship rules. This step involves collaborating with the business users and owners of the data to determine which records and fields should be retained or overwritten in case of conflicts or discrepancies. This step also involves defining the criteria and logic for record and field survivorship, and implementing them in the ETL tool or in Salesforce.

Creating new fields to store additional values from all the systems is not a key step, but rather a possible outcome of the gap analysis. It may not be necessary or desirable to create new fields for every value from every system, as it may result in redundant or irrelevant data. Installing a 3rd party AppExchange tool to handle the merger is not a key step, but rather a possible option for choosing an ETL tool. It may not be the best option depending on the requirements, budget, and preferences of the organization.

Creating a report in an external system combining Salesforce Account data and Invoice data from the ERP, and creating a Visualforce page combining Salesforce Account data and Invoice external object data are two approaches that an architect can suggest for achieving this solution. Both of these approaches can display data from both Accounts and Invoices in one place, using either an external reporting tool or a custom web page. Creating a report combining data from the Account standard object and the Invoices external object is not possible because Salesforce does not support reporting on external objects. Creating a separate Salesforce report for Accounts and Invoices and combining them in a dashboard is not ideal because it will not show the data in one report, but rather in two separate components.

 Implementing a custom big object to store the data is the best recommendation to reduce the performance degradation of the platform, as it allows storing large volumes of data that do not need real-time access or reporting. Custom big objects can be defined using metadata API or developer console, and support up to 1 billion records per object. Creating a custom object or using the standard order object would consume a lot of storage space and impact the performance of queries and reports. Using a standard big object defined by salesforce would not be applicable for order records, as standard big objects are predefined for specific use cases such as audit trails or field history.