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7 Essential Salesforce DevSecOps Tools in 2023

Josh Rank
January 19, 2022

Updated on 11/15/22

Sourcing the right Salesforce DevSecOps tools increases data security, streamlines the development pipeline, and reduces costly errors.

Why It Matters: Minimizing manual touchpoints frees up your team members to address more pressing issues while heightening overall quality. These DevSecOps tools create synergy to optimize your Salesforce development pipeline.

Increased automation enables your organization to expedite the application development lifecycle, leading to more releases every year.
Addressing security issues from the start of the DevOps pipeline reduces vulnerabilities in live applications.
Automated processes eliminate errors that result from a manual software development process.

DevSecOps for Salesforce

Here are 7 tools every Salesforce DevSecOps pipeline needs in 2023:

Static Code Analysis
Data Backup & Recovery
Continuous Integration
Continuous Deployment/Delivery
Version Control
Data Loader
Policy Scanner

1. Static Code Analysis

Every aspect of a development project is going to have an impact on the overall security posture and stability of the eventual product. This often leads people to focus on securing entry points through two-factor authentication and complicated passwords. And while those are great practices, many are surprised to learn that their code quality plays a role in meeting data security requirements too.

Static code analysis provides real-time insight into code health, so nothing slips between the cracks that will create a data security vulnerability later in the Salesforce DevSecOps pipeline.

Bugs and errors in the code that make it through production can impact the stability of your entire product. Cybercriminals can exploit these to gain access to systems through back doors. Overall failures can also threaten your data. Consistent, high-quality code eliminates these threats before they have the ability to impact your system.

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2. Data Backup & Recovery

A best practice for 2022 might sound familiar because it’s an ever-present recommendation: back up your system data. You can’t prepare for every possible threat to your operations. Bad actors and their exploits are always changing and evolving. While mitigation techniques are also evolving, they’ll never prevent certain factors, like user error and natural disasters.

That’s why having a Salesforce data backup and recovery tool is an essential part of a complete Salesforce DevSecOps strategy.

You never truly know what’s going to happen. It’s the reason people buy insurance for their cars and homes. Preparation for possible data breaches is a key part of a data security strategy, even if it’s unpleasant to consider.

Think of data backup and recovery as an insurance policy on your Salesforce data and metadata. You don’t want to be caught in an accident without insurance, and you don’t want to be caught in a data loss event without a recent backup.

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3. Continuous Integration

Compiling the efforts of a multiple-developer team can be a lengthy process. Testing the lines of code to make sure they don’t negatively interact with each other is a painstaking task. Integrating all of these aspects of the project into a singular location takes a lot of time and attention.

Continuous integration automates the process of compiling the efforts of your team into a single project, saving you time and money.

Manual processes are susceptible to human error, particularly when they are time-consuming and repetitive. Continuous integration takes this task off the hands of your team members, freeing them up to address more pressing concerns.

Continuous integration is an ongoing effort that continually refines these tactics to achieve larger goals. The reduction in errors and increase in productivity make this an essential tool for Salesforce DevSecOps.

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4. Continuous Deployment/Delivery

The second half of integrating the efforts of your team into a singular location is to move the project to the deployment stage.

Continuous delivery is an automated process to move all types of changes, such as features, configurations, and bug fixes, into production after receiving the appropriate approvals. Continuous deployment takes this one step further by removing the approval stage to automate the entire process and get to production as quickly as possible.

Salesforce DevSecOps enables teams to build, test, and release with increased frequency and speed.

The needs of your customers—and your data security department—are going to evolve quickly in 2023. It’s important to instill flexible practices that better equip your team to address emerging trends quickly and reliably.

These tools expedite operations so you can introduce updates that directly contribute to these efforts. Remaining timely is a massive advantage both as a data security measure, but also in your efforts to remain a leader in your industry. It’s not enough to simply be the first to introduce a new service or functionality. You must ensure it also performs flawlessly in order for it to remain secure and prove effective to the end user.

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5. Version Control

Multi-developer teams are a great way to fast-track your Salesforce DevSecOps projects. More hands on a project will be able to push it through more quickly. However, having multiple team members working on a singular update or application also introduces a new series of challenges.

Version control is a source code management tool that allows multi-developer teams to manage software revisions and updates over time.

Branching strategies allow your team to revert to older versions to avoid overwrites and errors. Version control works to keep all changes to the main code repository in sync with each other. And let’s not forget the importance of quality code.

Working on a large team speeds projects to deployment, but it can also introduce complications and errors. Version control is an essential tool to keep your Salesforce DevSecOps projects on the right path to set up later stages for success.

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6. Data Loader

Transferring records and data between Salesforce environments is often necessary to provide essential information. This can sometimes include thousands of pieces of data. Manually entering this information simply isn’t an option for companies that don’t want to spend massive amounts of time setting up an environment.

A Salesforce data loader makes importing and exporting a tremendous amount of data much easier and more reliable.

This automated DevSecOps tool can be used to migrate customer information between Salesforce environments, export records to backup repositories, upload significant quantities of new data, and more. Flexibility and data security practices will be essential aspects of your DevSecOps efforts in 2023. Tools like static code analysis, CI/CD, and others will help you work toward these goals and keep your information and systems data secure. A data loader fits within this structure to facilitate sandbox population and other time-saving processes. This allows team members to focus on pushing projects forward instead of being bogged down by basic setup tasks.

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7. Policy Scanner

Permissions and profile settings can get changed around or copied to the point where admins aren’t able to keep track of who can access which parts of the Salesforce environment. This can lead to overexposure of data, which is much more dangerous than you might think.

Accidental deletions are the leading cause of data loss. Total visibility into permissions and profile settings ensure everyone’s access is correct.

Automated scans of these settings, as well as adherence to internal rules, ensure your team has access to the data they need to perform their duties—and nothing else. This helps with compliance and drastically reduces the likelihood of a costly accident.

Salesforce DevSecOps improves numerous aspects of a Salesforce application development lifecycle. Any one of these aspects—data security, time to market, and continuous connectivity—is enough to justify the integration of a new tool set. However, the real value comes from how these tools work together to provide an infrastructure of quality and security.

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Next Step…

Interested in instituting DevSecOps for Salesforce development practices, but don’t know where to start? We put together a guide to help you streamline your DevOps efforts with a focus on security.

Click here to learn more.

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FAQs

How does DevSecOps for Salesforce support data security?

DevSecOps tools support data security in two ways. The first is that they help create applications and updates free of bugs and errors. Any bugs that exist in a live environment have the potential to create malfunctions, which can be exploited by cybercriminals or lead to an outage. The second way they help is they expedite the process of releasing updates. This allows organizations to quickly address emerging issues before they are able to negatively impact the environment as a whole.

Does hosting factor into the overall security of my Salesforce environment?

Yes. A successful data security strategy will consider all aspects of the platform. DevSecOps tools aim to create updates and applications that support the overall strategy. Hosting addresses the infrastructure that supports the entire platform. Cloud hosting is more flexible, but on-premises hosting offers the greatest level of control and the strongest protection against data loss events.

Can I source tools for Salesforce DevSecOps from multiple vendors?

Yes, you can, but this is not recommended. Many of these tools interact with each other, so it’s essential they work together properly. For instance, CodeScan’s static code analysis solution integrates seamlessly with AutoRABIT’s CI/CD pipeline, heightening the effectiveness of each aspect. Sourcing tools from multiple sources aren’t guaranteed to increase the benefits of each other.

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