Saleforce.com’s web application platform Force.com gets a free edition that’s meant to prime the pump for enterprises considering putting some apps up in the cloud. There are limits, of course, but at first glace it looks like it provides some fairly robust functionality for organizations that just want to get started and have modest requirements.
Here’s what you get according to the press release:
— one custom app
— one Web site with up to 250,000 page views per month
— up to 10 custom objects (custom database tables) per user
— a sandbox development environment to test the app or site before
deploying it
— free online training
— a library of sample applications.
[…] How? In general, cloud infrastructures achieve high server utilization rates instead of traditional data centers and server closets where an app typically has a server to itself — many times with a lot of overhead that translates into wasted energy. Companies like Saleforce.com also load-balance in a way that they bring computing power to bear as user demand dictates instead of keeping servers fully powered up on indefinite standby. For its part, Salesforce.com has been making it easier for companies to get their feet wet when it comes to cloud computing. Last year, it began offering a free edition of its Force.com web app platform. […]