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by Joshua Greenbaum, Contributing Editor   | Abstract: | Apex, the new application development platform from CRM innovator Salesforce.com, means that the future is here -- or at least that it is on its way. |
Salesforce.com has a new idea, and the question is whether your company will bite. At stake, Salesforce.com's CEO Marc Benioff claims, is no less than the future of software. The concept is a new platform called Apex. And, despite a couple of gotchas, there's a good chance there will be an Apex, or something much like it, in your future. Here's the pitch: It's not enough that you have on-demand applications like Salesforce.com's CRM system. You need more robust functionality, more customizations, more things that make your business run better than your competitors'. Problem is, that means not only lots of custom code, but all the attendant back-office hardware and software to run it. And more database administrators and programmers to keep all the lights on. So, what if you could do all of your customizations and run them in an on-demand environment on a bona fide relational database, one that gave you programmatic access -- via Web services -- to all the rest of the goodies in Salesforce.com and its partner products? [Click to continue] |