Independent Research Firm Cites Salesforce.com a Leader in Platform-as-a-Service

SAN FRANCISCO, June 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the enterprise cloud computing (http://www.salesforce.com/cloudcomputing/) company, today announced it has been cited as a leader in two Forrester Research, Inc. Waves for Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS): The Forrester Wave™: Platform-As-A-Service For Vendor Strategy Professionals, Q2 2011  and The Forrester Wave™: Platform-As-A-Service For App Dev And Delivery Professionals, Q2 2011. Both were issued on May 19, 2011.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20050216/SFW105LOGO)

According to the report for Vendor Strategy Professionals:

• "Salesforce.com helped to create the PaaS category, having begun by exposing the platform underlying its CRM SaaS product years ago."
• "Salesforce.com's aggressive investments to expand its Force.com portfolio certainly support that notion, as do the additional platform products salesforce.com added during late 2010 and the Heroku acquisition."
• "Forrester estimates that salesforce.com has more than 10,000 accounts using Force.com as a development platform (as opposed to using it for extending the salesforce.com applications), perhaps as many as 25,000. Salesforce.com markets the Force.com portfolio through its own field force, but hundreds of partners also promote and extend the platform."

The Forrester Wave for PaaS for Vendor Strategy Professionals – Salesforce.com's High Scores for the Force.com platform

• In the ISV Scenario evaluation, salesforce.com received the highest scores possible for its partner and product strategy and services. It also received high scores for its architecture, administration and management, ISV services, cloud connectivity, corporate strategy, financial strength, current usage, employees and distribution channels.
• In the Service Provider evaluation, salesforce.com again received the highest scores possible for its partner and product strategy and services. It also received high scores for its architecture, application development, ISV services, cloud connectivity, corporate strategy, financial strength, current usage, employees and distribution channels.

The Forrester Wave for PaaS Application Development and Delivery Professionals – Salesforce.com's High Scores for the Force.com platform

• For coders, salesforce.com received the highest scores possible for its partner and product strategy and services. It also received high scores for its architecture, administration and management, ISV services, corporate strategy, financial strength, current usage, employees and distribution channels.  
• For business experts, salesforce.com again received the highest scores possible for its partner and product strategy and services. It also received high scores for its architecture, application development, administration and management, ISV services, corporate strategy, financial strength, current usage, employees and distribution channels.

Force.com: World's Leading Enterprise Cloud Platform-as-a-Service

With the increasing demand for social, mobile and open enterprise apps, Force.com is continuing to see dramatic adoption, extending its position as the world's leading cloud platform-as-a-service.

• 220,000+ custom applications have been built on the Force.com platform.
• 380,000+ developers have joined the developer.force.com program.
• Salesforce.com's service regularly handles 400,000,000 transactions daily, and handled 30 billion transactions in its last quarter.
• The 25 billion transactions were handled at an average speed of less than 300ms.
• Salesforce Mobile - more than 300,000 downloads from Apple App Store and more than 100,000 downloads from BlackBerry App World.

Comments on the News

• "We believe our success in the PaaS market is the direct result of Force.com's proven ability to deliver the fastest path to success for business, IT and ISVs," said Byron Sebastian, general manager at Heroku and SVP of Platform at salesforce.com. "Force.com is enabling the next generation of real-time enterprise applications that are social, mobile, and built for the cloud." 

Additional Resources

• To view the full reports, visit:
  • The Forrester Wave: Platform-As-A-Service For App Dev And Delivery Professionals, Q2 2011: http://www.forrester.com/rb/go?docid=56710&oid=1-ISWMWO&action=5
  • The Forrester Wave: Platform-As-A-Service For Vendor Strategy Professionals, Q2 2011: http://www.forrester.com/rb/go?docid=56295&oid=1-IT2Z7F&action=5
• For more information about the Force.com PaaS, visit: http://www.salesforce.com/platform/
• Follow @salesforce and @forcedotcom on Twitter

About salesforce.com

Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company that has transformed the way companies collaborate and communicate. Salesforce.com is leading the effort to bring Cloud 2, the next paradigm for computing, to the enterprise by offering its customers the social collaboration, mobility and openness that are the hallmark of this new world. The company's platform and application services include:

• Salesforce Chatter, a private social network for your enterprise
• The Sales Cloud, for sales force automation and contact management
• The Service Cloud, for customer service and support solutions
• Radian6, for social media monitoring and engagement
• The Jigsaw Data Cloud, for data integrity and quality
• The Force.com platform, for custom application development
• Heroku, for building social and mobile apps in Ruby
• The AppExchange, the world's leading marketplace for enterprise cloud computing applications

Salesforce.com offers the fastest path to customer success with cloud computing. As of April 30, 2011, salesforce.com manages customer information for approximately 97,700 customers including Allianz Commercial, Dell, Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE, and SunTrust Banks.

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM." For more information please visit http://salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

Copyright (c) 2011 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce and the "no software" logo are registered trademarks of salesforce.com, inc., and salesforce.com owns other registered and unregistered trademarks. Other names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE salesforce.com