What does Salesforce data skew mean?

When more than 10,000 child records are linked to one parent record, data skew occurs in Salesforce.

If you frequently use Salesforce with objects that hold a lot of records, you likely already have a working knowledge of the techniques you may employ to properly manage and distribute your data. Indexing, employing slim tables, archiving procedures, and even divisions are some of the more obvious tactics. Even if you decide on the best technique or solutions, lookup skew may still go unnoticed as a lesser-known “silent killer” in your design. Learn how lookup skew affects objects with a lot of data in this blog post, as well as what you can do right away to lessen its consequences.

Different Type of Data skew

Account data skew
Ownership skew
Lookup Skew

1.Account data skew:

Under private sharing models, certain Salesforce objects, such as accounts and opportunities, have unique data linkages that maintain parent and child record access. In one of these relationships, account data skew results from having an excessive number of child records linked to the same parent object. Consider that you have several unassigned contacts stored in a single “Unassigned” account. Performance issues with record locking and sharing may result from this.

Accounts and opportunities are two examples of Salesforce objects that have unique data relationships that ensure parent and child record access in private sharing models. In one of these relationships, if too many child records are linked to the same parent object, this imbalance is known as “account data skew,” and it leads to performance issues.

You can learn more about account data skew here if you’re not familiar with it.

2.Ownership Data Skew:

The Ownership Skew will happen when a large number of records with the same object type are owned by a user, this causes a problem called “ownership skew.” Ownership skew will create performance problems, which can be noticed when you’re dealing with role hierarchy and sharing rules.

You can learn more about ownership skew here if you’re not familiar with it.

3.Lookup Data Skew:

When a very high number of records are linked to a single record in the lookup object, this condition is known as lookup skew. Lookup skew can cause issues with any object in your company because lookup fields can be added to any Salesforce object.

Please see this official Salesforce website for additional information about data skew.