Two days ago I attended an event by SalesForce.com, CloudForce 2010. In the CRM world, SalesForce is an awesome company that has given companies like Siebel or SAP a real run for their money. I feel it is the best CRM around. Not content to occupy the CRM space only, SalesForce is now targeting cloud computing with a difference: it is trying to marry cloud computing with content management systems and rich-internet application (RIA) development to develop and popularize an alternative application development and deployment model. A very ambitious and daring venture, I must say. Even though the market is immature today, in the world of IT changes can be pretty fast. Or they can linger on (if not, we wouldn't find a single mainframe on the face of earth). A complex proposition at its best, I see many "goods" and "bads" to it.
On the up side, SalesForce has built a brilliant RIA and is trying to leverage its knowledge to both help and tie in its clients. It is doing a brilliant effort to make partnerships and sell the idea on the force of its network. The marketing strategy seems to be brilliantly thought out, and the execution is marvellous. The deployed applications are said to take lesser time, are on the cloud and readily deployable to browsers, iPad, iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. With lower costs, it can potentially be tempting for an entrepreneur to use the set up to launch an internet application. With "Chatter", they are also trying to be the secure facebook of the corporate world. With tools to analyse Twitter feeds and integrate it with SalesForce products AND the applications developed, the possibilities indeed seem mouth-watering. Having a functioning CRM RIA is a big plus here.
On the down side, I feel they are trying to do too many things and trying to be all things to all people. I am not sure how this hopscotch of ideas (as suggested by the title) would work out without some seriously tough strategy planning and implementation. There have been systems that have promised develop once and run anywhere in different ways, but have failed when they have not given enough flexibility to developers and designers. Content management systems like Joomla or Drupal come in handy on a typical LAMP set-up with a nice net based UI to develop a reasonably powerful and secure application that can run on any Windows or Linux based cloud. At any time a company can switch the cloud-operator or host themselves. With SalesForce, you are pretty much tied to them if you want the app. Joomla and Drupal, however, may not be compatible to build mobile device applications, and would still need you to maintain or upgrade your own code. Another worry I have is that they have tied-up with Adobe to deliver their application development IDE. In many of my earlier blogs on RIAs, I have often complained about the lack of end-user focus in Adobe RIA applications like the erstwhile Flex. I sincerely hope SalesForce does not depend on them only for this IDE.
In conclusion, the product definitely has an immense potential to succeed, but the path is far from easy and there are some problems that I can already envision. It will be interesting to see how the application develops eventually.
On the up side, SalesForce has built a brilliant RIA and is trying to leverage its knowledge to both help and tie in its clients. It is doing a brilliant effort to make partnerships and sell the idea on the force of its network. The marketing strategy seems to be brilliantly thought out, and the execution is marvellous. The deployed applications are said to take lesser time, are on the cloud and readily deployable to browsers, iPad, iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. With lower costs, it can potentially be tempting for an entrepreneur to use the set up to launch an internet application. With "Chatter", they are also trying to be the secure facebook of the corporate world. With tools to analyse Twitter feeds and integrate it with SalesForce products AND the applications developed, the possibilities indeed seem mouth-watering. Having a functioning CRM RIA is a big plus here.
On the down side, I feel they are trying to do too many things and trying to be all things to all people. I am not sure how this hopscotch of ideas (as suggested by the title) would work out without some seriously tough strategy planning and implementation. There have been systems that have promised develop once and run anywhere in different ways, but have failed when they have not given enough flexibility to developers and designers. Content management systems like Joomla or Drupal come in handy on a typical LAMP set-up with a nice net based UI to develop a reasonably powerful and secure application that can run on any Windows or Linux based cloud. At any time a company can switch the cloud-operator or host themselves. With SalesForce, you are pretty much tied to them if you want the app. Joomla and Drupal, however, may not be compatible to build mobile device applications, and would still need you to maintain or upgrade your own code. Another worry I have is that they have tied-up with Adobe to deliver their application development IDE. In many of my earlier blogs on RIAs, I have often complained about the lack of end-user focus in Adobe RIA applications like the erstwhile Flex. I sincerely hope SalesForce does not depend on them only for this IDE.
In conclusion, the product definitely has an immense potential to succeed, but the path is far from easy and there are some problems that I can already envision. It will be interesting to see how the application develops eventually.
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