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Why does AWS as a cloud infrastructure provider matter for Salesforce?
After experiencing a data outage in May, Salesforce turned to Amazon Web Services. It was a huge move, but probably a necessary one, expert Brent Leary explains.
In May, it was announced that Salesforce had chosen Amazon Web Services as its public cloud infrastructure provider. The value of the deal is extremely high: Two giant vendors are basically teaming up and joining forces.
Using AWS allows Salesforce to be in 12 different geographic locations, giving the company good global coverage when it needs it. This new partnership will affect the IoT (internet of things), Sales, and Service clouds by allowing more access and coverage as well as a deeper relationship with Amazon.
The data outage Salesforce experienced in the cloud in May also could have played a role in the partnership. The outage could happen to any cloud infrastructure provider. While it was not convenient, it won't affect the general market transition to the cloud. Instead, it forces cloud infrastructure providers like Salesforce to show their customers that they take things like outages seriously and are always looking for ways to improve. Partnering with AWS could be an opportunity to try out AWS, and if it works out, put more of an emphasis on AWS moving forward. Amazon Web Services is able to handle huge amounts of regions and customers, which appeals to Salesforce.
It's important to leverage what's already been built to show customers Salesforce is always looking at how it can continuously improve. It will be interesting to see how this affects the way that Salesforce approaches infrastructure in the future.
