SalesForce Updates Force.com Platform and Offers New Pricing and $1 Million Developer Challenge

Today I had the chance to speak with Bruce Francis, VP Corporate Strategy of SalesForce and Force.com Platform. He briefed me on some updates within the Force.com platform that I’d like to share. I will admit that cloud computing isn’t my strongest suit but I took good notes and did a bit of research as well :)

Force.com is a platform and Bruce describes it as a "platform as a service". The way I think of cloud computing is basically not storing it "locally" but up there in the clouds for better performance. He explained that using the cloud changes things for the developer in three main areas: access to unlimited power, delivered as a utility service and infrastructure for any idea. The parts of the platform include: Force.com Development-as-a-Service includes new Force.com IDE, Force.com Metadata API, Force.com Code Share, and Force.com Sandbox.

They shared that Salesforce.com customers have already created more than 50,000 custom applications with the Force.com Platform, such as Accounts Receivable, Bug Enhancement Tracking, Employee Compliance and Training, Emergency Room Staffing, Expense Reporting, Food Ingredient Management, Recruiting, Time Management, and many others.

One of the big changes revolves around pricing for using the cloud. The new pay-per-login utility pricing model adds on a $5/login up to 5 logins a month plan. The old plan of $50/month/user unlimited logins will remain available as well. They are running a promotion throughout 2008 where the $5 plan will be 99 cents a month. I honestly don’t understand why they didn’t just say it’s 99 cents considering we aren’t even through January 2008 yet. They have priced the plan for mass adoption.

I asked about a comparison to Amazon’s computing services and Bruce said that Amazon handles the secure database well but they don’t handle integration, interface and app exchange like Force.com does and that Force.com focuses on the enterprise.

They are also announcing a $1 million dollar developer challenge as part of their "Tour De Force" visiting 20 cities as a global developer roadshow. They will announce the winner at the end of the tour. Apparently the $1 million is an investment so I am not sure how that affects the ability to use the money freely or if you are giving up equity should you win. The submitted apps must be built 100% natively on their platform.