Today’s enterprise demands real-time responsiveness, scalability, and agility. And while RESTful APIs helped build the foundation, they weren’t designed for modern, distributed, and reactive systems.
Salesforce is evolving, and your architecture should too.
This is the era of Event-Driven Architecture (EDA).
If you’re still polling records or chaining REST calls to sync systems, you’re missing out on a more efficient, scalable, and future-ready approach.
Here’s why event-driven thinking is no longer optional and how to get it right in Salesforce.
What Is Event-Driven Architecture?
In an EDA, systems communicate by producing and consuming events, messages that describe something that has happened (e.g., a record was created, an order was shipped, a payment was processed). These events are published to a message bus, and any number of subscribers can react in near real-time.
In Salesforce, this is supported by:
- Platform Events
Custom events for orchestrating business processes. - Change Data Capture (CDC)
Auto-generated events triggered by DML operations on standard/custom objects. - PushTopics / Streaming API
Legacy pub/sub model for record change notifications. - Real-Time Event Monitoring
For tracking security-related activities like logins, API usage, etc.
Why REST is Hitting a Wall
RESTful APIs follow a request-response model: if you want data, you ask for it. But that means:
- You poll for changes—wasting resources and increasing latency.
- Systems are tightly coupled—hard to scale or replace.
- You risk missing data or overloading endpoints.
This model breaks down in high-volume, multi-system environments where timing and decoupling are critical.
Real-World Salesforce Use Cases
Order Fulfillment in E-Commerce
When a customer places an order:
- A Platform Event is fired in Salesforce.
- External Order Management, Shipping, and Billing systems subscribe and process accordingly.
- No REST calls needed, no delays.
Patient Record Sync in Healthcare
- Use Change Data Capture on the Patient__c object.
- External EMR systems subscribe to these CDC events.
- Ensures up-to-date, real-time patient data across platforms without polling Salesforce.
Fraud Detection in Financial Services
- Monitor transactions via Real-Time Event Monitoring.
- Trigger alerts when anomalies (e.g., logins from new countries) occur.
- Security bots and ops teams get notified instantly.
Best Practices for Salesforce Event-Driven Design
- Use CDC for data sync, Platform Events for business processes.
- Avoid tight coupling: Use generic event schemas when possible.
- Implement durable subscribers (e.g., using CometD clients) to ensure no events are lost.
- Throttle and govern: Monitor event usage, enforce limits, and design for back-pressure.
- Secure event access: Use profiles/permissions and field-level encryption.
Developer Snippet: Publishing a Platform Event
Order_Processed__e event = new Order_Processed__e(
OrderId__c = 'ORD-1234',
Status__c = 'Shipped'
);
EventBus.publish(event);Subscribing via Trigger
trigger OrderProcessedTrigger on Order_Processed__e (after insert) {
for (Order_Processed__e evt : Trigger.New) {
System.debug('Order shipped: ' + evt.OrderId__c);
// Update related records or call external service
}
}A New Integration Mindset
Thinking in events, not endpoints, allows your Salesforce org to become:
- More modular
- More responsive
- More future-proof
Whether you’re integrating with a legacy ERP or building microservices in the cloud, event-driven design brings flexibility and real-time power to your architecture.
Drop a comment or connect to share your thoughts on building (or rebuilding) an integration strategy.
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