Universal Containers (UC) has large data volumes and is nearing data storage limits. The planned solution is to archive historical data to reduce…

The core requirement is to archive large data volumes to reduce Salesforce data storage while retaining the ability to report, query, and look up the archived information.

Big Objects are a native Salesforce solution designed specifically for storing and managing massive datasets (billions of records) on the platform. Data stored in Big Objects does not count against the organization's standard data storage limits, directly addressing the storage issue. They are accessible via Async SOQL for queries and can be included in custom UIs, fulfilling the accessibility requirement for large-scale data.

External Objects, via Salesforce Connect, allow data to be stored in an external system (e.g., Heroku Postgres, AWS). This data does not consume Salesforce storage. However, it remains seamlessly accessible within the Salesforce UI for reports, global search, SOQL queries, and lookups, behaving much like a standard custom object.

B. Custom objects: Storing archived data in another custom object would still consume the same standard data storage, failing to solve the problem of nearing storage limits.

C. Related objects: This is a general term describing an object's relationship, not a specific storage type or archiving solution that would reduce data storage consumption.

1. Salesforce Developer Documentation, Big Objects Implementation Guide, "Get Started with Big Objects": "Use Big Objects to store and manage a massive amount of data on the Salesforce platform. You can archive data from other objects or bring in massive datasets from outside systems... Big object data doesn’t count against your org’s data storage limits." This source confirms that Big Objects are intended for archiving and do not consume standard storage.

2. Salesforce Help, Salesforce Connect, "Salesforce Connect": "Salesforce Connect is a framework that enables your users to view, search, and modify data that’s stored outside your Salesforce org... Instead of copying the data into your org, external objects let you access the data in real time... The external data isn’t stored in Salesforce, so Salesforce Connect doesn’t consume your org’s storage." This source validates that External Objects use external storage while remaining accessible.

3. Salesforce Help, Reports, "Report on External Object Data": "When you create a report that includes an external object, Salesforce runs a search query on the external system. The results are reflected in the report." This confirms the reporting capability of External Objects.

4. Salesforce Developer Documentation, SOQL and SOSL Reference, "Querying Big Objects": "You can query big objects using SOQL or Async SOQL... Use Async SOQL to run queries on big objects." This confirms the query capability for Big Objects, which is essential for the requirement.