Force.com thoughts

A few weeks ago I started looking at Force.com - Salesforce.com's Cloud development platform. Initially I was a bit skeptical because I had never thought of Salesforce as a platform provider. I have used the SFA and CRM applications many times and although I have always liked its simplicity and performance of I did not know what to expect about the underlying infrastructure as a development platform.

I must admit that I have been very pleasantly surprised. Salesforce is well known for its aggressive marketing but the quality and depth of their technology should not be overlooked. However what has impressed me the most is their pragmatic approach to software development and the quality of their documentation and developer support.

What do I mean by pragmatic approach to software development? I mean that Salesforce has developed technology that is truly focused to solve a business problem. As you look around their API, data models, tools and configuration options it is easy what specific problem they address. You would not find technology for technology sake. 

The quality of their documentation and developer support are quite remarkable. Salesforce truly makes it easy for developers to get started. Their support turn around time is terrific and their user and developer communities are active and vibrant. I will discuss their platform in a future post but as of now I consider Force.com a leading Cloud platform that should be carefully considered by anyone looking to build an application on the Cloud.