Salesforce.com understands that the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our customers’ information are vital to their business operations and our own success. We use a multi-layered approach to protect that key information, constantly monitoring and improving our application, systems, and processes to meet the growing demands and challenges of security.
Secure data centers
Our service is collocated in dedicated spaces at top-tier data centers. These facilities provide carrier-level support, including:
Access control and physical security
- 24-hour manned security, including foot patrols and perimeter inspections
- Biometric scanning for access
- Dedicated concrete-walled Data Center rooms
- Computing equipment in access-controlled steel cages
- Video surveillance throughout facility and perimeter
- Building engineered for local seismic, storm, and flood risks
- Tracking of asset removal
Environmental controls
- Humidity and temperature control
- Redundant (N+1) cooling system
Power
- Underground utility power feed
- Redundant (N+1) CPS/UPS systems
- Redundant power distribution units (PDUs)
- Redundant (N+1) diesel generators with on-site diesel fuel storage
Network
- Concrete vaults for fiber entry
- Redundant internal networks
- Network neutral; connects to all major carriers and located near major Internet hubs
- High bandwidth capacity
Fire detection and suppression
- VESDA (very early smoke detection apparatus)
- Dual-alarmed, dual-interlock, multi-zone, pre-action dry pipe water-based fire suppression
Secure transmission and sessions
- Connection to the Salesforce environment is via SSL 3.0/TLS 1.0, using global step-up certificates from Verisign, ensuring that our users have a secure connection from their browsers to our service
- Individual user sessions are identified and re-verified with each transaction, using a unique token created at login
Network protection
- Perimeter firewalls and edge routers block unused protocols
- Internal firewalls segregate traffic between the application and database tiers
- Intrusion detection sensors throughout the internal network report events to a security event management system for logging, alerts, and reports
- A third-party service provider continuously scans the network externally and alerts changes in baseline configuration
Disaster Recovery
- The Salesforce service performs real-time replication to disk at each data center, and near real-time data replication between the production data center and the disaster recovery center
- Data are transmitted across encrypted links.
- Disaster recovery tests verify our projected recovery times and the integrity of the customer data
Backups
- All data are backed up to tape at each data center, on a rotating schedule of incremental and full backups
- The backups are cloned over secure links to a secure tape archive
- Tapes are not transported offsite and are securely destroyed when retired
Internal and Third-party testing and assessments
Salesforce.com tests all code for security vulnerabilities before release, and regularly scans our network and systems for vulnerabilities. Third-party assessments are also conducted regularly:
- Application vulnerability threat assessments
- Network vulnerability threat assessments
- Selected penetration testing and code review
- Security control framework review and testing
Security Monitoring
Our Information Security department monitors notification from various sources and alerts from internal systems to identify and manage threats.
