Force.com 2 - already 5 PaaS platfroms

At the Dreamforce conference, Salesforce demonstrated one more time that now it's not so interested in CRM (it was mainly a subject for jokes) as in cloud platforms. Following the release of SaaS database Database.com, the company introduced another big Force.com feature - Heroku - the PaaS startup that Salesforce has recently acquired for $ 212 million. Heroku - is a cloud platform for developing and hosting Ruby-applications (Ruby - is a popular framework for developing Web apps, created by 37Signals). Heroku became one of the five PaaS-services included in the new version Force.com 2. And the new structure of the Force.com platform now looks like this:

Force.com is backed by cloud DBMS Database.com. And developers, depending on their skills and goals, can select one of five options:

- AppForce - platform for rapid app development. It allows to build apps with 80% clicks and 20% code

- Siteforce - platform for creating and managing external websites. It also utilises mainly visual development tools

- VMForce - platform for building Java-based applications. Supports easy migration of existing packaged enterprise apps to the cloud

- Heroku - platform for building Ruby-applications

- ISVforce - platform for SaaS providers, where they can host and manage internet services, sell them at AppExchange marketplace

Recall also that Force.com provides tools for developing and hosting Flash/AIR apps and integration tools for Google Apps.

See also: Top 10 Public Cloud Platforms