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Google, Salesforce cozy up on cloud services


By David Worthington
December 9, 2008 — 
A deepening partnership between Google and Salesforce.com has made it easier for developers to create hybrid applications that combine CRM business applications with consumer Web services.

Today at the Dreamforce conference in New York, the companies announced Force.com for App Engine, a free Python library that installs into Google App Engine, providing integration with Salesforce's Force.com Web application platform. Documentation, best practices, sample code and test cases are included.

While it is possible for cloud services with APIs based on Web standards such as SOAP to interoperate without vendor cooperation, hybrid solutions make it a lot easier to do, explained Parker Harris, Salesforce co-founder and executive vice president.

Specifically, Force.com for App Engine permits App Engine applications to read and write to data from Force.com. It can also access Salesforce services through native calls to Salesforce's APIs, without the developer having to create his or her own library using API callouts, Harris said. Those services include Salesforce's database, logic and workflow capabilities.

Likewise, Force.com developers have the option to write applications that incorporate Google's Web services with business data.

Startup cloud-computing solution provider Appirio collaborated with Harrah's Casino Hotels to developer a Web application that connects a slot machine Web service, hosted on Google App Engine, with CRM data from Force.com. The composite application tracks gameplay and issues reward points to Harrah's VIP customers.

Appirio has also created a calendar synchronization utility that connects Salesforce to Google Calendar, said Harris. The companies began working together in 2003 for creating mashups, resulting in products such as Salesforce for Google AdWords and Salesforce for Google Apps, among others.

While Salesforce customers may negotiate Service Level Agreements with it directly, there are no SLAs available for services that cut across cloud computing providers, Harris told SD Times. The company may consider a joint SLA with its partners if customers ask for it, and the companies are positioned to do so; they already share information about their respective networks' health, he added.

Salesforce's interoperability work is not limited to Google. In November, it announced a partnership with Amazon to deliver Force.com tools for Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud and Simple Storage Service.

Cloud computing providers have the right attitude by working together on interoperability rather than developing siloed systems, said Beagle Research managing principal Denis Pombriant. Siloed systems would be a competitive barrier to entry in the marketsplace, he added.


Related Search Term(s): APIs, cloud computing, CRM, Python, Google, Salesforce


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