Well Architected Salesforce Solutions (WAF for Salesforce)

Defining a robust architecture for your Salesforce implementation is critical to delivering a successful business solution. Over time, business users will demand new capabilities from the platform, and there could also be external demands from customers, partners and technological advances. The Well-Architected Framework (WAF) is emerging as a widespread best practice for cloud-based products like Salesforce. AWS developed WAF to help cloud architects build secure, high-performing, resilient, and efficient application infrastructure. The principles of WAF can be effectively applied to Salesforce solutions, offering invaluable guidance for architects and developers aiming to create robust and scalable solutions on the Salesforce platform.

The WAF comprises six key pillars:

1. Operational Excellence: Focuses on running and monitoring systems and continually improving processes and procedures. Key topics include automating changes, responding to events, and defining standards to manage daily operations. In the context of Salesforce solutions, operational excellence entails effective platform management, including deployment processes, monitoring, and automation. This pillar encourages continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD), proactive monitoring of system health and performance, and automation of routine tasks to streamline operations and enhance agility
2. Security: Focuses on protecting information and systems. Key topics include confidentiality and integrity of data, managing user permissions and establishing controls to detect security events. For Salesforce, security is paramount in any implementation dealing with sensitive customer data. Applying the security pillar involves enabling Multi-Factor Authentication (required by Salesforce), enforcing strict access controls through profiles & permissions, encrypting sensitive data at rest (built-in) and in transit, and regularly running security assessments to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities.
3. Reliability: This topic focuses on workloads performing their intended functions and how to recover quickly from failure to meet demands. Key topics include distributed system design, recovery planning, and adapting to changing requirements. Salesforce already ensures high platform availability and built-in disaster recovery to a second data centre. Furthermore, Salesforce architecture must include reliability measures such as data backup, automated re-deployment from code repository, meaningful error messages from integrations, designs for fault tolerance, and testing of recovery procedures to ensure resilience in the face of disruptions.
4. Performance Efficiency: This pillar concerns properly allocating IT and computing resource types and sizes optimised for workload requirements, monitoring performance, and maintaining efficiency as business needs evolve. For Salesforce, this could involve optimising data model design, using built-in features instead of custom code, leveraging composite APIs, and employing asynchronous integrations for long-running tasks.
5. Cost Optimisation: To avoid unnecessary costs, WAF advocates understanding business needs over time and deploying the right type and quantity of resources as the business grows. As with most SaaS products, cost optimisation involves choosing the Salesforce licenses based on forecast demands (time & volume) and periodically reviewing licenses to avoid waste. (See https://www.caleidoscope.co.uk/licensing-checklist.html and the forthcoming Salesforce License Strategy webinar.)
6. Sustainability: This area focuses on minimising the environmental impacts of cloud infrastructure. By using the Salesforce platform as a strategic component in your overall IT architecture, you already support a high degree of sustainability.

In conclusion, the Well-Architected Framework provides a comprehensive and structured approach to designing and optimising cloud-based solutions, offering valuable insights and best practices across key areas such as operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimisation.

By applying the framework's principles to Salesforce solutions, architects and developers can create robust, scalable, and cost-effective systems that meet their organisations' evolving needs and deliver exceptional user experiences. For further information on how to apply WAF to your Salesforce architecture, please contact Caleidoscope Associates at [email protected]

Resources:

• 8-Factor Success Model™ for Salesforce implementations
• AWS WAF Whitepaper