Cloud Computing Platform

The Force.com cloud computing platform is drastically shifting the way that the IT sector and developers think about cloud computing applications and business application development. Force.com offers an enormously powerful, scalable, and secure cloud computing platform where you can develop, package, and immediately deploy applications with no infrastructure.

You never need to think about hardware and infrastructure again with the Force.com cloud computing platform. The platform architecture provides an integrated architecture that lets you concentrate on building cloud computing applications, rather than infrastructure. By assembling cloud computing applications with clicks, components and code, you then can instantly deploy them to the salesforce.com infrastructure.

Customisation and Cloud Computing Applications

Because your company is unique, salesforce.com makes it easy to adjust or extend your cloud computing application to work in an ideal way for you. Force.com cloud computing platform provides tools for "no compromise customisations," to make it possible to create fast and easily adaptable customisations, as well as deep customisations to satisfy any requirement.

• Point-and-click configuration for cloud computing apps. The Force.com platform makes it easy to adapt the functionality of cloud computing applications in order to meet your specific and unique requirements. Working with the metadata framework and a sequence of simple point-and-click wizards, you may design custom user interfaces and adjust the structure of the data model and the cloud computing applications' business logic.
• Customise with code, like you would in business application development. Although the fastest and easiest way to customise applications is via point-and-click configuration, some functionality is beyond the constraints of a metadata framework. For such cases, developers may create necessary functionality in open-ended development environments, using toolkits for most of programming languages, or Apex Code, the language of the Force.com cloud computing platform.

You will reap all the benefits of the cloud computing platform, including fast, easy, safe, and automatic upgrades for your cloud computing applications, regardless of the level of customisation you need, keeping all your customisations intact.

Integration with a Cloud Computing Platform

Integration is one of the more complex parts of building successful enterprise applications. After years of acquiring diverse technologies, integration presents a difficult and elusive IT challenge .However this provides an opportunity to re-align business with strategic goals and gain a competitive advantage.

The Force.com Web Services API dramatically reduces the amount of effort associated with integrating cloud applications for enterprise applications.

Force.com applications have a proven track record of successful integration with any enterprise system or application, including Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and other third-party solutions. No more vendor lock in, broken integrations, or intricate technology dependencies. Force.com Connect means that partners can deploy a single, pre-integrated version of their cloud computing applications for all salesforce.com consumers.

The Force.com cloud computing platform presents five mix-and-match approaches to meet the organisational, technical, and user needs of each client, from pre-integrated cloud computing applications to custom integration solutions.

• Native ERP connectors. Force.com native connectors built by salesforce.com are available for pre-built integration between your cloud computing applications and Oracle and SAP systems.
• Integration middleware. For additional integration solutions for cloud computing platforms, you'll find pre-built connectors and the services of more than 25 integration technology partners on the Force.com AppExchange marketplace.
• Developer toolkits for cloud computing applications. The Force.com cloud computing platform supports all major business application development tools and environments, for building custom integrations with your business applications.
• Mash-ups. For a faster and easier way to add pre-integrated functionality to your cloud computing applications, visit the Force.com AppExchange. Here you can find hundreds of components and applications, which you can integrate with the click of a mouse.
• Native desktop connectors. Salesforce.com provides native desktop connectors for rapid integration between cloud computing applications and Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Word.

Business Application Development

Thanks to the Force.com cloud computing platform, the development of business applications has never been easier. There are several options for developing and creating cloud computing applications, depending on the developers experience and preferences:

• Business application development can be as easy as: point, click, create.strong> The point and click approach to creating cloud computer applications is unique to the Force.com cloud computing platform. Programming knowledge is no longer a barrier in designing and building new cloud applications. With only a web browser, business users, administrators, and developers can define the metadata that forms a 'blueprint' for an application, including the data model, forms, workflows, objects and more.
• Use your favourite language for business application development. The Force.com Web services API ,in combination with other tool kits, are available for integration of other systems or mash-ups with external services. The most popular development languages can be used to develop highly interactive cloud applications, including: Java, VB.NET, C#, .NET. Using the Force.com API, developers can directly access all data stored in their Force.com cloud computing platform applications.
• Want to speak our language? With the Apex Code programming language, developers have the most granular control ever to create almost every type of cloud computing application and to do the whole thing from customising objects to creating new buttons to writing completely new applications from scratch. With Apex Code, entire new behaviours and business logic can be developed with code that runs direct on the Force.com cloud computing platform. Developers become freed from owning and managing servers and infrastructure, and instead get the same power and flexibility to create cloud computing applications as salesforce.com's own R&D staff.
• The optimal user interface for cloud computing applications. VisualForce gives developers the power to design virtually any user interface for cloud computing applications. Using the logic and workflow intelligence provided by Apex Code, VisualForce offers the flexibility to meet the requirements of applications built for a wide range of users on any device. For the first time, you can now create and deliver any user experience you can imagine for your cloud computing applications.

Business application development on the Force.com cloud computing platform is the best of both worlds: it's fast without forcing developers to give up the flexibility they need to create enterprise-quality cloud computing applications.