What is cloud computing?

Biswajeet November 5, 2014 No Comments

Cloud Computing is the use of hardware and software to deliver a service over a network (typically the Internet). With cloud computing, users can access files and use applications from any device that can access the Internet.

There are 3 services that are fundamentally used in cloud computing:

Infrastructure as a service (IAAS)
Platform as a service (PAAS)
Software as a service (SAAS)

If you have a web based mail account hosted by Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Rediffmail etc, then you have already experienced cloud computing. Instead of storing the mails on your computer It store them some where else, you use a browser to connect to the Internet and access the mails. The software and storage for your account doesn’t exist in your computer. This is one of the cloud computing service. You as an user simply access the services in cloud with your computer browser. But, in the back end there are various computers, servers and data storing systems that create the whole cloud computing system.
Infrastructure as a service (IAAS) :
In Infrastructure as a service (IAAS) the provider manages and delivers the underlying infrastructure, including storage, network and computing resources which can be used by software developers for building business solutions. Cloud users can install their operating system and their applications on the cloud infrastructure. Example of the companies that provide IAAS are Amazon EC2, Google compute engine, HP cloud etc.
Platform as a service (PAAS):
Platform as a service (PaaS) is a category of cloud computing services that provides a computing platform on top of which you can build a application as desired. The platform can include operating system, programming language, frameworks, libraries, services database and and other services that are required to host your developed application. Service provider could offer a developer tool which can be used to build services or database services or data storage services on the provided platform. Example of PAAS service providers are Force.com, Heroku, Azure cloud services, Google app engine.
Software as a service (SAAS):
Software as a service (SAAS) is a way of delivering applications over the Internet—as a service. Instead of installing and maintaining software, you simply access it via the Internet, freeing yourself from complex software and hardware management. An example of application service is CRM or ERP. SAAS delivers single application through the browser to number of customers using a multitenant architecture environment. Salesforce.com is a Best known example of SAAS, that provides CRM application built on force.com. Other examples of SAAS are google apps, microsoft office 365.

What is Salesforce?

Biswajeet March 14, 2014 No Comments

Today the world is leaded by Cloud computing. Salesforce.com is one of the way for moving all your applications to cloud. There are lots of question running in your mind that what is Salesforce? What are its features? What are the benefits of moving apps to Salesforce? So to answer your questions, here is a small article which would help you find your answers. I have tried here to answer all these questions in a simple manner.

Salesforce is a SaaS (software-as-a-service), global enterprise software company Best known for its Customer Relationship Management (CRM), that is now also offering platform-as-a-service. Salesforce is a pioneer in providing a high quality on-demand CRM software (referred to as “The Sales cloud” by Salesforce). They have diversified into customer service and support on-demand offerings as well (referred to as “The service cloud” by Salesforce).

Salesforce is a classic manifestation of two (SaaS and PaaS) out of the three major components of cloud computing.

Following is a list of products and services offered by Salesforce :

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – Their CRM is best in class in the on-demand category. With highly robust features and ease to customize, its one of the most adaptable CRM software in the market.
Force.com Platform – This is the platform-as-a-service offering of Salesforce.
Chatter – Think of chatter as a Facebook for enterprise! It facilitates real time collaboration at workplace bringing people, data, and content together in a secure, and trusted network.
AppExchange – AppExchange is a directory of applications built for Salesforce by third-party developers, which users can purchase and add to their Salesforce environment.
Customization – This is the core essence of Salesforce’s CRM application. User defined fields can be added and existing fields modified to better align the application with the in-use terminology within the company.
Web services – Salesforce offers a SOAP Web service API (An XML based method of sending and receiving information between applications via HTTP protocol) that enables integration with other systems.
Mobile support – One of the coolest features of Salesforce is the support for mobile devices, where some important functionality of its CRM can be accessed through mobile devices (currently the supported devices include iphone, Blackberry, Android and Windows based smartphones).
Programming Languages – Apex is a programming language that is syntactically similar to Java and is used in customization and implementation of applications.