Salesforce.com has come a long way since its CRM SaaS days, having moved into the cloud platform space and now fronting the social enterprise drive, causing a radical change in the enterprise software market and forcing established vendors like Oracle and SAP into defensive positions along the way. It bears a heavy responsibility these days given the number of suppliers (not to mention customers) whose businesses are either largely or totally dependent on its success.
With cloud plays emerging from Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, and many others, its cloud lead risks being eroded so the interdependent relationship between the cloud provider and its partners is becoming even more loaded. Additions such as extended Java support and the Heroku acquisition are designed to bring more developers and more applications into the Salesforce.com environment. TechMarketView subscribers can read our analysis of Salesforce.com and where the opportunities for the partner ecosystem lies, in Salesforce.com: surrounding opportunities.