Welcome back to the latest edition of the Datablazer Roundup. Your monthly dose of what Datablazers are reading, writing, watching, building, and talking about.
From asking why historical CRM data is worth keeping to rethinking customer-centric data models and exploring how trusted context is your AI advantage, the community has been sharing ideas, asking good questions, and putting new approaches to the test.
And, of course, September brought us Dreamforce where we were met with plenty of Data 360 product announcements, customer stories, community moments, and reasons to celebrate (Have FOMO or want to relive the excitement? Catch up on Salesforce+).
Here’s what stood out this month.
Dreamforce 2026
Dreamforce gave Datablazers plenty to talk about this year… from the latest Data 360 announcements to what the agentic enterprise could look like when AI has the right context behind it. Catch up on what you missed or relive your favorite moments in the Data 360 collection on Salesforce+.
The Data 360 news worth catching up on
If you didn’t catch every announcement between the keynotes, sessions, demos, and hallway conversations, you’re probably not alone.
Tim Combridge rounds up the Data 360 news in Top Salesforce Data 360 Updates from Dreamforce ’26 covering what’s changed and what practitioners should have on their radar.
A Golden Hoodie moment
Dreamforce isn’t just about what’s new. It’s also a chance to celebrate the people who make this community what it is.
A big congratulations to Angelica Buffa, who received the Golden Hoodie during the Data 360 Keynote. After 15 years working in data, Angelica shares her journey, lessons learned, and advice for others blazing their own path in this interview.
Putting context at the center of the agentic enterprise
One of the bigger conversations coming out of Dreamforce was the role context plays in making enterprise AI useful and trusted.
The Agentic Enterprise: How Data 360 and AIforce Redefined Context at Dreamforce ’26 from the Data 360 Learning Hub looks at that shift and what it means for organizations thinking about the relationship between their data and AI.
What Datablazers are Writing
Your historical data might be more valuable than you think
Old CRM data can be expensive to keep around, but before hitting delete, it’s worth asking another question: Could that history make your AI smarter?
In Best Practices for Using Historical CRM Data in Data 360 and AI, Mehmet Orun looks at the tradeoffs between archiving, accessibility, cost, and the potential value of historical data for analytics and AI.
It’s a useful reminder that a data strategy isn’t only about what you bring into Data 360… it’s also about what you keep, where you keep it, and why.
Start with the customer, not the technology
What does the customer experience actually need from your data? In Building Your Customer-Centric Data Model, Aline Ribeiro Fagundes explores how to approach data modeling from the customer outward, grounding the architecture in the experiences and business outcomes it needs to support.
It’s a useful perspective for anyone tempted to start with systems and schemas before stepping back to look at the bigger picture.
Who is Data 360 actually for?
In Who Is Salesforce Data 360 (Formerly Data Cloud) Actually For?, Tim Combridge looks beyond job titles to unpack the teams, roles, and use cases that can benefit from Data 360. If you’re figuring out who needs to be at the table for a Data 360 implementation, we recommend giving this one a read.
Turn credit consumption into a feedback loop
Understanding where Data 360 credits are going is one thing. Using that information to continuously improve how you build is another.
Vishal Soni gets practical in Build a Credit Feedback Loop for Data 360, showing how teams can bring usage visibility into their development process and make cost part of the conversation earlier.
What’s the latest on Data 360?
Keeping up with Data 360 can feel like a job in itself.
Dharmik Shah does some of the sorting for you in Top 10 Salesforce Data 360 Updates Businesses Need to Know, bringing together recent developments and what they could mean for teams working with the platform.
And if pricing is top of mind for you and your business, What Is Salesforce Data 360 Pricing & Alternatives from cdp.com takes a closer look at Data 360 pricing and how it compares with other approaches.
Under the hood of a Data 360 implementation
The answer, unsurprisingly: it depends. But Salesforce Data 360 Implementation: What It Takes and How Long It Runs by Muhammad Salman Ahmad helps make “it depends” a little more useful, breaking down the work involved and the factors that can shape an implementation timeline.
Making sense of the Salesforce data foundation
Data 360, MuleSoft, Informatica, and Tableau each play a role in the broader Salesforce data story. Understanding Salesforce’s Data Foundation: Where Data 360, MuleSoft, Informatica, and Tableau Fit steps back from individual products to look at the bigger architecture and where each piece fits.
A reality check on Marketing Cloud Next + Data 360
A compelling vision doesn’t make implementation challenges disappear.
In Marketing Cloud Next and Data 360: The Vision Is Powerful, but the Implementation Reality Is More Complicated, Alok Khandelwal looks at what becomes possible when Marketing Cloud Next and Data 360 come together, and the practical considerations teams need to navigate to get there.
From Team Data 360
Why trusted context matters for enterprise AI
AI doesn’t need every piece of enterprise data in every prompt, but it does need the right evidence for the task at hand. Salesforce engineering leaders Raveendrnathan Loganathan and Tobias Muehlbauer go under the hood of how Data 360 approaches that problem in How Data 360 Builds Trusted Context: The Enduring Layer for Enterprise AI.
The deep dive covers the Agent Context Engine, governed memory, Zero Copy, context assembly, and the architecture behind delivering the right enterprise context to humans, applications, and AI agents. If you want to understand the engineering behind the “trusted context” conversation, make some time for this one.
Go deeper on Data 360 and the agentic enterprise
Want to keep the conversation going? Join Data 360: The #1 CDP for the Agentic Enterprise on October 28 to explore how Data 360 can help bring trusted data and context into agentic experiences.
10 Minute Dreamforce Download
Short on time? We’ve got you. Join the Data 360 team on October 8 for a 10-minute download of the biggest Data 360 takeaways from Dreamforce.
Blazin’ Badges and Trails
Ready to get hands-on? The Master the Basics of Data Exploration with Data 360 Query Editor Trailhead module walks through the fundamentals of creating a workspace, running queries, and using Query Editor to get answers from your data.
See You Next Month
That’s a wrap on September.
From Dreamforce announcements and Golden Hoodie moments to implementation lessons, architecture deep dives, and plenty of conversation about trusted context, Datablazers gave us a lot to dig into this month.
Writing about something you learned? Made a video? Built a tutorial? Hosting an event? Share it with #Datablazer. We’ll keep an eye out for great community work to feature in the next edition.
Until then, keep building, keep learning, and keep sharing what you discover.
