Data Archive - Filtering on related objects

[GJohnson]

Summary

Enhance Veeam Data Cloud Data Archival policies to support selection and exclusion rules based on related object field values, not just fields on the archived object itself.

Problem Statement

Today, archival policies can only evaluate fields on the target object. This limitation makes it difficult—or impossible—to implement common, real‑world archival scenarios where retention decisions depend on the state of a parent or related record.

While limited workarounds exist (such as duplicating parent fields onto child objects via custom lookups), these approaches are:

Operationally complex
Not always feasible
Impossible for standard objects like ContentDocument

Example Use Case
EmailMessage archival based on Case attributes

Desired behavior:

Archive EmailMessage records only when:

The related Case.ClosedDate is older than 3 years


Exclude any EmailMessage records where:

Case.IsLegalHold = true



Currently:

This logic cannot be expressed in archival policies.
Workarounds require copying Case fields to EmailMessage, which is fragile and increases schema complexity.

Critical Gap: ContentDocument
This limitation is especially problematic for ContentDocument records:

ContentDocument is related to Case via ContentDocumentLink
There is no supported workaround to evaluate Case fields when archiving ContentDocuments
As a result:

It is not possible to archive files associated with Cases closed more than 3 years ago
Even when the business explicitly does not want to archive the Case itself—only its attachments



Requested Capability
Allow archival policies to:

Reference related objects (parent or linked records)
Apply filter and exclusion logic based on related object field values
Support relationship traversal (e.g., EmailMessage → Case, ContentDocument → ContentDocumentLink → Case)

Example (conceptual):

Archive ContentDocument

Where related Case.ClosedDate < TODAY() - 3 years
And Case.IsLegalHold = false



Business Impact & Benefits

This enhancement would:

Enable compliance‑driven retention policies (e.g., legal hold exclusions)
Reduce the need for schema customization and data duplication
Unlock archival for high‑volume objects like attachments and emails
Support numerous real‑world scenarios where retention is driven by parent record lifecycle

Conclusion

Support for related-record–based archival criteria would significantly increase the flexibility, scalability, and enterprise readiness of Veeam Data Cloud Data Archival. This capability is essential for customers managing complex Salesforce data models and regulatory retention requirements.