Salesforce Data Integration
Salesforce Data Integration: A Comprehensive Guide Introduction Salesforce offers numerous tools to access, synchronize, and share data with external systems. However, selecting the right tool for your project is critical. This guide explores Salesforce’s data integration landscape, providing recommendations based on specific use cases—along with guidance on which tools to avoid. Scope of This Guide This decision guide focuses on data-level integrations involving Salesforce, covering: While these are just a subset of integration challenges faced by Salesforce Architects, future guides will address: Note: Many tools discussed here can also solve enterprise-wide integration challenges, but those use cases are beyond this guide’s scope. Key Takeaways Common Considerations for Choosing Data Integration Tools Before selecting a tool, evaluate these key factors: Area to Consider Key Questions Existing Tools & Landscape Is an ESB/ETL solution already in place? Are there compliance requirements? Are systems cloud or on-premise? Data Flow Does data need to move synchronously, asynchronously, or in batches? Should data be replicated? Which system is the source of truth? Implementation What’s the effort for non-Salesforce systems? Which teams will deliver integrations? What tools do they prefer? Maintainability Who will maintain the integration? What skills do they have (or need)? What’s the total cost of ownership? Data Volume Is it a large data volume (LDV) scenario? How frequent are bulk changes? What’s the impact of singleton updates? Limits Are complex transformations needed? Will data be combined from multiple sources? How often will integrations run per user? Overview of Data Integration Tools Tool Salesforce → External External → Salesforce Execution License Required? Apex Actions ✅ Yes ✅ Yes Server-side ❌ No Change Data Capture ✅ Yes ❌ No Server-side ❌ No* Custom Apex (REST/SOAP) ✅ Yes ✅ Yes Server-side ❌ No External Services ✅ Yes ❌ No Server-side ❌ No Generic Events (Legacy) ✅ Yes ❌ No Server-side ❌ No** Heroku Connect ✅ Yes ✅ Yes Server-side ✅ Yes MuleSoft Anypoint ✅ Yes ✅ Yes Server-side ✅ Yes MuleSoft Composer ✅ Yes ✅ Yes Server-side ✅ Yes Native Salesforce APIs ❌ No ✅ Yes Server-side ❌ No OmniScript ✅ Yes ✅ Yes Client-side**** ✅ Yes OmniStudio Integration ✅ Yes ✅ Yes Server-side ✅ Yes Outbound Messaging ⚠️ Not Ideal ❌ No Server-side ❌ No Platform Events ✅ Yes ✅ Yes Server-side ❌ No*** PushTopic (Legacy) ⚠️ Not Ideal ❌ No Server-side ❌ No** Salesforce Connect ✅ Yes ✅ Yes Server-side ✅ Yes ✅ = Recommended | ⚠️ = Possible but consider alternatives | ❌ = Not supported Notes: Other Tools (Not Primary Integration Solutions) While these tools support aspects of data movement, they should not be the foundation of an integration strategy: Final Recommendations By aligning the right tool with your use case, you can optimize performance, reduce technical debt, and ensure scalable integrations. Content updated April 2025. Like Related Posts Who is Salesforce? Who is Salesforce? Here is their story in their own words. From our inception, we’ve proudly embraced the identity of Read more Salesforce Marketing Cloud Transactional Emails Salesforce Marketing Cloud Transactional Emails are immediate, automated, non-promotional messages crucial to business operations and customer satisfaction, such as order Read more Salesforce Unites Einstein Analytics with Financial CRM Salesforce has unveiled a comprehensive analytics solution tailored for wealth managers, home office professionals, and retail bankers, merging its Financial Read more AI-Driven Propensity Scores AI plays a crucial role in propensity score estimation as it can discern underlying patterns between treatments and confounding variables Read more
