Salesforce.com is rolling out the first enterprise database built for the cloud. Appropriately dubbed Database.com, the machine is built from the ground up with cloud-based, mobile and social applications in mind.
Database.com empowers developers using any language, platform or device to focus on building applications instead of investing time tuning, maintaining and scaling databases. Built on Salesforce.com’s infrastructure and technology, Database.com is spinning out as a stand-alone cloud database.
“We see cloud databases as a massive market opportunity that will power the shift to enterprise applications that are natively cloud, mobile and social,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com. “For the first time, we are making Database.com, the database that is proven and trusted by our 87,000 customers, available as an open, stand-alone service to accelerate the creation of these new apps.”
Next-Generation Tuning
Salesforce.com points to the industry shift to mobile apps, a social data model, and an event-driven push model — essentially the next generation of enterprise apps — as reasons for adopting Database.com.
Since Database.com is open, developers can write apps in Java, C#, Ruby, PHP and other languages. Developers can run their apps on any platform — Force.com, VMforce, Amazon EC2, Google AppEngine, Heroku or Microsoft Azure. And the apps can run natively on any device, like an Android or BlackBerry smartphone, an iPad, or an iPhone.
Salesforce.com also emphasized security. Database.com offers SSL, single sign-on, identity confirmation, and anti-phishing tools. It also provides secure access, including user and role-based security, sharing rules, and row-level data security. Database.com boasts some of the most stringent security certifications in the industry, including ISO 27001, SAS 70 Type II, and SysTrust.
Raising Cloud Storage Stakes
As Dana Gardner, principal analyst at Interarbor Solutions, sees it, Salesforce is revving up the cloud data era with a highly desirable set of features in Database.com….