{"id":184,"date":"2007-01-23T10:48:18","date_gmt":"2007-01-23T18:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.formtek.com\/blog\/?p=184"},"modified":"2007-01-23T10:48:18","modified_gmt":"2007-01-23T18:48:18","slug":"saas-killer-platforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/formtek.com\/blog\/saas-killer-platforms\/","title":{"rendered":"SaaS: Killer Platforms"},"content":{"rendered":"

“You have to move from being a killer app to a killer platform” said<\/a> Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff<\/a>.\u00a0 The Spreadsheet was the first ‘Killer App’, and now Salesforce has spun off their Apex SaaS environment, something they’re\u00a0calling a ‘killer platform’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Salesforce.com validated the SaaS\u00a0model\u00a0by creating\u00a0their successful web-based on-demand CRM offering.\u00a0 Salesforce is doing well with more than $495 million in annual revenue, 27.100 customers and 500 applications that have been integrated with Saleforce and are available in their AppExchange directory.\u00a0 They predict 45% growth in 2007 to $720 million.\u00a0\u00a0One example of\u00a0Salesforce’s growth is a significant win<\/a> they had by\u00a0signing up 15,000 users at Cisco Systems.\u00a0\u00a0They’ve also\u00a0announced that they’ve brought on board Peter Coffee\u00a0from<\/a> eWeek to become the Director of Platform Research.<\/p>\n

Last week at Apex Day in San Francisco, Salesforce launched an upgraded and expanded platform that they are calling Apex<\/a>.\u00a0 Apex introduces a developer environment that allows ISVs and partners to create extensions and add-ons within Salesforce that run natively on the Salesforce servers.\u00a0 The goal for Salesforce is to move beyond CRM and to\u00a0provide a general-purpose delivery platform for SaaS.\u00a0 Apex is a step in that direction, but most of the buzz at Apex Day still centered around\u00a0how to build\u00a0out extensions to Salesforce’s CRM.<\/p>\n

The base Salesforce platform is built on Java and Oracle database.\u00a0 The new development environment is called Apex, and provides a protected layer of development which includes the Java-like Apex programming language and SOQL<\/a> (Sforce Object Query Language), a SQL-like language for database interactions.\u00a0 Apex looks cool, and at least for small-scale Visual-Basic like scripting of Salesforce extensions, it looks quite powerful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the cavaet is that\u00a0Apex is proprietary and forces lock-in with Salesforce.\u00a0 Existing Java\/SQL code can’t easily be ported to the Salesforce environment without a significant rewrite.\u00a0 And at least with this first release, it isn’t clear how well\u00a0Apex can support the processes needed for developing and maintaining the code base of a large application.<\/p>\n

It may be premature to call\u00a0Salesforce Apex the ‘killer platform’, but if Salesforce can keep up their current\u00a0momentum and vision, it may happen.<\/p>\n

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“You have to move from being a killer app to a killer platform” said Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff.\u00a0 The Spreadsheet was the first ‘Killer App’, and now Salesforce has spun off their Apex SaaS environment, something they’re\u00a0calling a ‘killer platform’.\u00a0 Salesforce.com…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

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