Cloud Computing Platform

Thanks to Force.com's cloud computing platform, IT departments and developers are radically changing the way they think about cloud computing applications and business application development.

Force.com offers an extremely powerful, scalable, and safe cloud computing platform. You can develop, package, and instantly deploy applications without any infrastructure.

With the Force.com cloud computing platform, you can stop thinking about hardware. The Force.com platform offers an integrated architecture that allows you to concentrate on building cloud computing applications, rather than on infrastructure. You can use the salesforce.com platform to assemble cloud computing applications with clicks, components and code, and then instantly deploy them.

Customisation and Cloud Computing Applications

Because every company is unique, salesforce.com makes it easy to customise your cloud computing applications to suit the way you work. The Force.com cloud computing platform includes tools for "no compromise customisations" which make customisations fast and easy, and yet deep enough to meet just about any need. The Force.com platform is based on a philosophy of keeping simple things simple and making complex things both possible and accessible. It does so by providing two paths to customisation success.

• Point-and-click configuration for cloud computing applications. With the Force.com platform you can modify the functionality of cloud computing applications easily to meet your specific requirements. Working with the metadata framework and a set of simple point-and-click wizards, you can design custom user interfaces and change the structure of the data model, as well as the cloud computing applications' business logic.
• Customise with code, just like you would in business application development. Point-and-click configuration is the fastest and simplest way to customise, but some functionality is beyond the constraints of a metadata framework. For such cases, developers can create the necessary functionality in open-ended development environments, using toolkits for the most common programming languages, or they can use Apex Code, the language of the Force.com cloud computing platform.

Whatever the level of customisation you require, you will benefit from the cloud computing platform; not to mention fast, easy, safe, and automatic upgrades for your cloud computing applications—with all your customisations intact.

Integration with a Cloud Computing Platform

Application integration is one IT's most important goals. After decades of acquiring diverse technologies, integration is not just a difficult and elusive IT challenge, but can also be an opportunity to align your business with your strategic goals – and gain a competitive advantage.

Included in the Force.com cloud computing platform is a comprehensive family of technologies built on top of the Force.com Web Services API. These dramatically minimise the effort associated with integrating cloud computing applications.

Force.com can be integrated with any enterprise application or system, including SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, and other third-party solutions. The days of broken integrations, intricate technology dependencies, or vendor lock-in are long gone. For partners, Force.com Connect means single, pre-integrated version of their cloud computing applications can be deployed to all salesforce.com customers.

The Force.com cloud computing platform offers five mix-and-match approaches, from pre-integrated cloud computing applications to custom integration solutions, to ensure that it meets the organisational, technical, and end-user needs of each customer.

• Native ERP connectors. You can use native connectors built by salesforce.com for pre-built integration between your cloud computing applications and Oracle or SAP systems.
• Integration middleware. The Force.com AppExchange marketplace offers additional integration solutions for cloud computing platforms. It allows you to find pre-built connectors and access the services of more than 25 integration technology partners.
• Developer toolkits for cloud computing applications. The Force.com cloud computing platform supports all major business application development environments, and offers tools for building custom integrations with maximum flexibility and choice.
• Mash-ups. The Force.com AppExchange offers the easiest and fastest way to add pre-integrated functionality to your cloud computing applications. With hundreds of components and applications available, you can integrate with the click of a mouse.
• Native desktop connectors. Salesforce.com provides native desktop connectors to enable rapid integration between cloud computing applications and programs such as Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Word.

Business Application Development

Thanks to the Force.com cloud computing platform, business application development has never been simpler. And because we don't believe that one size fits all, we offer several options for creating cloud computing applications, tailored to the experience and preferences of the developer.

• Business application development can be as easy as point, click, create. A point-and-click approach to creating cloud computing applications is unique to the Force.com cloud computing platform. You can now create new cloud computing applications without any programming knowledge. All that is needed is a Web browser; business users, administrators and developers can define the metadata that results in the "blueprint" for an application, including the data model, objects, forms, workflows, etc.
• Use your favourite language for business application development. When seeking to integrate with other systems or create mash-ups with external services, by using the Force.com Web services API in combination with toolkits for the most popular development languages (including Java, VB.NET, C#, .NET, or open-source languages) you can create highly visual and interactive cloud computing applications. Using the Force.com API, developers can access all the data stored in their Force.com cloud computing platform applications directly.
• Want to speak our language?. With the Apex Code programming language, developers have the most detailed control possible to create almost any kind of cloud computing application. Developers can do everything from customising objects and creating new buttons to writing entire applications from scratch. Completely new behaviours and business logic can be developed with Apex code, which runs directly on the Force.com cloud computing platform. Developers lose the shackles of having to own or manage servers and infrastructure, and have the same power and flexibility to create cloud computing applications as the R&D staff at salesforce.com itself!
• The optimal user interface for cloud computing applications. Visualforce enables customers to design virtually any user interface for cloud computing applications. Using Apex Code, with its powerful logic and workflow intelligence, Visualforce offers the flexibility to meet the demands of applications designed for a variety of users on a variety of devices. You can now create and deploy any user experience you can dream up for your cloud computing applications.

Business application development on the Force.com cloud computing platform combines the best of both worlds. Developers can create enterprise-quality cloud computing applications very rapidly, and they can do so with all the flexibility they cherish.