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Cloud clout: Who are the real powers in the cloud?

Tags:
Applications,
SaaS,
Services,
Cloud

Cath Everett ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 18 May 2009 14:39 BST

CLOUD'S BIG FIVE: Salesforce.com

Salesforce.com has long been the prime exponent of SaaS, and has more recently taken a leaf out of Microsoft's book by attempting to grow an application ecosystem through the launch of its platform-as-a-service products in a bid to broaden its appeal. It has retained the advantage afforded by being among the first to market and remains a leader rather than a follower in this largest segment of the cloud market.

How long has it operated in cloud computing?
The company opened for business in 1999 as a dedicated SaaS provider.

What cloud services does it provide and what is the pricing model?
The vendor has two cloud-based offerings. First are CRM applications, which include salesforce automation, service and support, and marketing. The firm's AppExchange also enables subscribing customers to use third-party packages that are pre-integrated with its own. The applications business has about 50,000 customer organisations today, paying per-user, per-month.

The firm also offers Force.com, which is a development and deployment environment that enables programmers and software vendors to assemble components to create applications and then run them in the cloud. There are about 55,000 organisations using it today, paying per-user, per-month.

What back-end cloud infrastructure does Salesforce.com have in place?
The company declined to provide details beyond saying it has 'multiple' US datacentres supporting 10 billion server transactions every quarter.

What service-level agreements (SLAs) or security controls does Salesforce.com provide?
According to Andy Jacques, senior vice president of Northern Europe, Middle East and Africa: "The biggest SLA is confidence and because all of our customers run on the same multi-tenant platform, they know that the service is guaranteed in the same way for all of them. There's no contract that can hold greater weight than that, but we do get into conversations on a case-by-case basis".

The company's datacentres comply with the ISO27001 information assurance standard and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant's Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) 70 Type 2 standard.

What procedures does Salesforce.com operate should customers decide to switch vendors or bring services back in-house?
Customer data is extracted from the vendor's databases using standards such as Comma Separated Value (CSV) files. The data is then shipped to them using a variety of methods such as CDs sent through the post or via an internet download.

How does it position itself in terms of cloud computing?
Jacques says: "We're the leading software-as-a-service provider and were the first to market. We've been operating in this space since 1999 and are coming up to our 10th anniversary. So all we've ever done is cloud and if you look at our core message and the spirit of the company, it's all about taking away the infrastructure burden to allow customers to focus on running their business and driving innovation."

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