Join our CTO, Michael Topalovich, and 10k other Salesforce enthusiasts at this year’s Cloudforce on March 15 in San Francisco. This year’s theme is (you can probably guess it) the Social Enterprise! Expect to hear guests from Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Accenture, and Burberry discuss how they are taking advantage of the Social Enterprise , as well as register for 40 breakout sessions, attend the Expo, and network with thousands of professionals. Use the link below to register today.

• Cloudforce Social Enterprise Tour

Salesforce.com is home to over a million applications running on Force.com, Database.com, and Heroku. These platforms are all targeted towards a specific type of application: Force.com for developers who are creating data-centric applications similar to CRM, Heroku to run custom apps that can be rewritten in multiple languages, and Database.com for unifying Force.com and Heroku under a common set of cloud services. According to Byron Sebastian, CEO of Heroku, the reason why salesforce.com is so successful in the cloud is not the type of cloud platforms offered, but rather, because salesforce.com “allows them to concentrate on building the application rather than worrying about managing the servers the application runs on.” If you need Force.com application help, let us know and we might be able to help.

• Salesforce.com: A Million Cloud Apps and Counting

Have you voted for Delivered Innovation’s two panels at Techweek? If not, what are you waiting for?

• Techweek 2012- Vote for Delivered Innovation!

Deloitte has formed an alliance with salesforce.com to “provide multinational and international companies with the software, mobile, and open cloud computing technologies for the social enterprise.” Paul Clemmons, Principal at Deloitte and leader of their cloud market offering and emerging solutions line, will be the lead in the global alliance. Deloitte argues that their clients are looking to work more effectively and efficiently, and a switch into cloud computing and salesforce.com will represent the solution catalyst.

• Deloitte Partners with Salesforce.com

Results for salesforce.com’s fiscal 4th quarter and full year 2012 financial results will be released on February 23, after the market closes. The company plans to host a conference call at 5:00 PM eastern time to discuss the financial results with the investment community. A live web broadcast of the event will be available on the salesforce.com Investor Relations website at www.salesforce.com/investor.

• Salesforce.com Announces Timing of It’s Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2012 Financial Results Conference Call

Our “State of the Cloud 2012: What Business Executives Need to KNow” event at the ITA is this upcoming Thursday, February 16! Our CTO, Mike Topalovich, is excited to join in on the cloud panel next to Brad DeSent of Apex Consulting Group, Inc., and Chris Kabat of MPS Partners, to discuss the evolving cloud computing landscape. The event is free, and held at the ITA (200 S. Wacker, 14th floor) starting at 9am on Thursday, February 16. Register using the link below, and we’ll see you there!

Force.com and salesforce.com news from the past week:

Leveraging Heroku Postgres for Advanced Analytics
@sbob909
Heroku announced Heroku Postgres last week. For Force.com developers, this means that you can now provision a PostgreSQL database quickly, load your data, and then analyze that data using the Postgres ANSI standard SQL implementation.

Salesforce.com Launches AppExchange Mobile, a Marketplace for the Mobile Enterprise
@salesforce
Big news at Cloudforce last week- salesforce.com launched AppExchange Mobile, which finally brings the power of the AppExchange to your mobile device.

Salesforce: Different Percentage Code Covered in Different Environments
@wesnolte
A few things to check if you are finding that your tests are reporting different degrees of test-coverage in different environments.

Using jQote2 for JavaScript Templating
@joshbirk
jQote2 is one library that enables client side templates with JavaScript.

jQuery Org Chart- a Plugin for Visualising Data in a Tree-like Structure
@wesnolte
How to get your data to appear in a tree structure.

Mobile SDK is Now GA
@forcedotcom
Mobile SDK, which lets customers build custom iOS and Android mobile apps for the Force.com and Database.com platforms, is now available.

Earlier this year, salesforce.com acquired Radian6, the largest social media monitoring solution available. This Wednesday at Cloudforce NYC, salesforce.com announced the Social Marketing Cloud, powered by Radian6 technologies to help companies manage their brand presence across a variety of social media platforms. The Social Marketing Cloud is comprised of 5 core services: Social Monitoring, Social Insights, Social Engagements, Social Hub, and Social Websites. These services are optional to salesforce.com customers, and pricing varies depending on how many features of the Social Marketing Cloud you want to use.

• Salesforce.com Steps Past CRM, Into Social Marketing

Force.com is launching a Code Cookbook Contest this month. Submit a Best Practice or Code Sample recipe to the Force.com Cookbook site by December 31st for the chance to win a MacBook air. Recipes will be judged by how helpful the code is, if it solves a new problem, and if it is a good example of how to implement a solution. The winner of the Code Cookbook Contest will be announced mid-January.

• Get Cooking Cookbook Contest

Another exciting announcement that came out of Cloudforce NYC: AppExchange Mobile, so you can bring the power of Salesforce to your phone or tablet. All you have to do is go to www.appexchange.com on your mobile device to access AppExchange Mobile, as it will tailor to your device and operating system.”Salesforce apps like Chatter mobile, Dashboards and Salesforce Mobile bring the power of the social enterprise to your mobile device.” There are nearly 40 applications to chose from, both free and paid, with more to surely come.

• Salesforce.com Launched AppExchange Mobile, a Marketplace for the Mobile Enterprise

Currently, 70% of businesses already use cloud computing solutions, and that number is expected to rise. What will 2012 bring? Blaisdell argues that hybrid and private cloud adoption will begin to dominate, security will continue to be a high priority, and IT departments will start researching the cloud for more solutions. Ultimately, the way we work could quite possibly be changing forever, with the increase in mobile applications, the freedom the cloud gives us to work wherever we want, and the ease in which we communicate. What are your 2012 cloud predictions?

• Business in the Clouds in 2012

Still trying to decide whether the cloud is right for your business? Bellamy lists 5 points to consider when playing with the idea of cloud computing. First and foremost, lower cost of ownership. The cloud can be significantly more cost-effective for your business, so you can put that money to other business uses, like growing. Secondly, the cloud is dependable, and if there is ever an emergency, people are there all day, every day, to help, which can give you a piece of mind. Moreover, the cloud is scalable, and can be easily adjusted to meet the needs of your growing company. Lastly, the cloud is both mobile and future-proofing. The cloud allows you to access your data from anywhere, and whether you like change or not, this is the way of the future.

• Is Cloud Computing For You? Five Points to Consider

Nick Mehta shares his thoughts on Benioff’s speaking abilities. He brings to light how Benioff is inclusive and infectious, insisting on the “you” instead of “our company,” creating a sense of community rather than a corporation. He creates an environment where customers and users want to learn and talk to each other and are excited to hear more. Benioff is constantly evolving salesforce.com to adhere to new trends and needs and isn’t afraid to adapt or imitate new technology such as Facebook. While presenting, Benioff is confrontational, taking small jabs at people such as Bill Gates or companies like Oracle, which proves that Salesforce is more of a revolution against “old guard CEOs who don’t get the social enterprise.” All in all, Mehta has been impressed with Benioff and salesforce.com’s success and true passion for the community.

• Marc Benioff’s Five Leadership Secrets

Gertner’s research suggests that SaaS is now worth $12.1 billion worldwide. “Increasing familiarity with the model, continued oversight on IT budgets, and the growth of PaaS developer communities and interest in cloud computing are now driving adoption forward,” says Sheron Mertz, a Gartner researcher. In North America alone, SaaS is worth $7.7 billion, with a predicted growth of $12.9 billion by 2015.

• SaaS Industry Now Worth US $12.1 Billion

Another Benioff article; they are just flocking in because of the post-Dreamforce high. In this one, Wainewright discusses Benioff’s argument that if enterprises don’t embrace social media, they are going to fall behind. During London’s Cloudforce this past week, Benioff was asked to comment on what is going to happen to companies that do not embrace the social enterprise. Benioff’s response was straight to the point, “They’re not going to be around in five or six years. The world is just gonna snap them in the neck.” Whether this response was a little harsh is debatable, but does it hold truth? I particularly like Wainewright’s point at the end, “if you don’t have a strategy to the cloud, you’ll still lose the race in the end.” This holds a lot of truth for the social enterprise, too. If you don’t set a strategy, goals, or take the time to learn how to properly use it, you might as well just forget about becoming a part of it.

• Enterprises Must Change or Die, Says Benioff

Some new additions to Chatter in Winter ’12 to look forward to. ChatterActivity tells you the number of posts/comments/likes on posts made by the user; ChatterConversation, ChatterConversationMember, and ChatterMessage all represent private messages within members. Lots to look forward to for Winter ’12.

• New Chatter Objects in Winter ’12

Klimoff offers some advice before moving to the cloud. Before making the transition, make sure you consider why and how you are going to benefit from the cloud. For example, break down your IT processes and applications and think about what benefits you want to receive from them by transitioning to the cloud. Analyze data access patterns, security domains, availability and reliability; make sure you look into these before uncovering any issues in the future. Finally, calculate the total cost of moving to the cloud, whether it saves you money or costs more. I would add, too, to consider looking up case studies of other cloud stories, just to understand how it could benefit your company; this way, you are going into the cloud knowing what you can get out of it.

• Tips to Help Businesses Make the Most Out of the Cloud

After the recent conclusion of Cloudforce ‘11 in NYC, Reid Carlberg of the Force.com Labs took some time to post a tip about resolving coding obstacles. Having spent 7 hours with Salesforce developers in 1:1 coding consult sessions, Reid found himself coming back to his problem solving strategy – a quonset hut. “Find the point where the problem manifests itself most clearly, isolate that point, and then create the simplest version of a solution that might possibly work.  I call this building a quonset hut.”

• Code Consultations and the Power of the Quonset Hut
  

In this article, R “Ray” Wang builds his case for two-tiered ERP. In an ideal world, many enterprises would prefer to jump entirely into the cloud. This plan, however, is unrealistic as businesses face the challenge of optimizing business value, a challenge that acknowledges that certain legacy systems still hold value. A two-tiered approach to ERP can leverage the legacy systems with remaining value while also leveraging the cloud. The two-tiered approach depends heavily on systems’ integrability, a well-conceived cloud roadmap, and a cloud system architect who can construct a seamless, working ERP out of the two systems.

• Research Summary: Best Practices – The Case for Two-Tier ERP

Ben Kepes dives into the world of SMB and Disaster Recovery via a recent study. While cloud computing has brought large-enterprise levels of computing power to the SMB, the SMB has yet to adopt the large-enterprise attitude that expects Disaster Recovery to be a standard part of their process. Kepes perspective is unique – “Having come through a natural disaster recently, I’ve seen first hand how having accessible data – no matter of location or status of physical equipment – is a critical part of business continuity.”

• SMBs and Disaster Recovery
  

And, just to prove the point, this week’s Gmail failure and resulting account deletions brought to light their own back-up plan – “But it isn’t safe and sound in some remote server attached to the cloud. Instead, it’s safe on back-up data tapes somewhere in an undisclosed location.”

• For 40,000 Gmail Users, Google Has to Leave the Cloud to Review the Tapes
  

Enterproid is a new mobile app that addresses the dilemma faced by IT Departments by the increasing number of personal smartphones brought into the workplace by the workforce that are being used for work as well as personal reasons. Mobility is crucial to the new workforce but IT Departments must still “secure and manage this emerging fleet of devices.” Enterproid is an app environment that creates “a distinctive profile that is secure from the rest of the phone.” Users and IT manage their devices with a cloud console.

• Enterproid Brings Work / Life Balance to Smartphones
  

Chris Rollyson, friend of Delivered Innovation, has published this case study about rapidly building and deploying a social media roadmap for Maple Leaf Digital Lounge, a Canadian venture and virtual ecosystem that “promotes discovery and collaboration among Canadian digital startups, foreign and Canadian investors and other enablers.” In addition to a unique value proposition, Chris also faced the challenge of time – the Maple Leaf Digital Lounge launch event is March 12 at SXSW.

• The Maple Leaf Digital Lounge Uses SNR for a Fast Launch