Integration
Force.com Connect: The Cloud Revolutionizes Integration
Application integration topped the list of important IT goals in a recent IDC study of C-level executives. After decades of acquiring diverse technologies, integration presents not only a difficult and elusive IT challenge, but an opportunity to align your business with strategic goals and gain competitive advantage. While Gartner estimates that integration currently consumes almost 35 percent of the total cost of design, development, and maintenance in a typical on premise project, Cloud Computing is making integration faster, easier and less risky than ever. In fact, today over half of all transactions supported by the Force.com platform are web service, integration calls.
Introducing Force.com Connect— Five Paths to Integration Success
Force.com Connect is a comprehensive family of technologies built on top of the Force.com Platform that dramatically reduces the effort associated with integration. Force.com Connect provides five paths to integration success by leveraging new technologies—including Web services, multitenant architectures, and publicly available APIs—and an extensive integration partner ecosystem.
For customers, Force.com Connect means proven integration with any enterprise application or system, including SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, and other third-party solutions. Force.com Connect means no more broken integrations, intricate technology dependencies, or vendor lock in, while providing the flexibility to take advantage of emerging Web services. For partners, Force.com Connect means they can deploy a single, pre-integrated version of their applications for all salesforce.com customers. To see how Force.com Connect can benefit your company, see The Benefits of Cloud Computing Integration.
Choose Your Integration Path
From pre-integrated apps to custom integration solutions, Force.com offers five mix-and-match approaches to meet the organizational, technical, and user needs of each customer.
Choose Your Integration Middleware
Force.com is designed to work with every integration middleware solution in the market. For a list of certified integration solutions, check out the Integration and Data Management category in the AppExchange marketplace. Here you'll find pre-built connectors and the services of more than 75 integration technology partners.
Build It Yourself
For building custom integrations and maximum flexibility and choice, the Force.com platform supports all major development environments and tools including .NET, Java, PHP, Ruby on Rails, and many more.
Use Our Native Connectors
Whether you need to integrate to the most common desktop productivity tools including Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Word or ERP Suites from SAP or Oracle, Force.com provides free, proven native connectors that will speed
Find it on the AppExchange
For the easiest and fastest way to add pre-integrated functionality, check the AppExchange directory. With over 850 components and applications, you can integrate with the click of a mouse.
Connect the Cloud
Harness the power of multiple clouds. Learn how connect the data and content of the most popular cloud services including: Google AppEngine, Amazon Web Services, and Facebook with Force.com.