In Data We Trust

Data is the lifeblood of a company. When data flows freely to those who need it most, business booms. But, should the flow stop, a business fails. According to the National Archives & Records Administration, after a major data loss or extended data center outage (of ten days or more), most companies shut down within a year of the disaster.

Despite the stakes, according to a national survey, many business do not have proper data backup.

40% of Small and Medium Sized Businesses don’t back up their data at all. Up to 50% of all backups are not fully recoverable and up to 60% of all backups fail in general.
Since 2003, the majority of North American workers are mobile. One-third of all computers sold are laptops, and 60% of all data is held on PC Desktops and laptops.
* 15% or more of laptop computers are stolen or suffer hard drive failures.

To avoid becoming a statistic, every day, more and more businesses are looking to cloud-based software-as-a-service vendors to provide a one-stop IT shop.

When workers have instant access to data and files through a web browser, people don’t feel the need to store key data on local machines. When data is centralized on the cloud, it can be backed up and maintained by the best and the brightest. Between Google Apps and Salesforce CRM, many professionals will have all the software they need, saving the cost of licensing and maintaining complex office suites. Today, cloud-based offices can securely access their data from any machine with an Internet connection and work seamlessly from any location.

Of course, when a company moves core data to the cloud, it must be just as careful when choosing a IT provider as it should be when choosing IT personnel. The Salesforce CRM platform offers businesses a number of key safeguards, including trust.salesforce.com, release trains, and superb test coverage.

trust.salesforce.com

Saleforce.com believes that trust starts with transparency, and provides real-time information on system performance and security on a public web site that anyone can visit at trust.salesforce.com. The System Status panel lists each of the Salesforce servers, flagging any current performance issues, and providing a RSS feed with historical information going back to Sep 2010. The trust.salesforce.com site also provides customers with background information on data integrity, security, and overall best practices.

Release Trains

Like clockwork, three times a year, Salesforce rolls out a major new release. All customers are upgraded automatically and seamlessly, at no additional cost, ensuring that everyone has all the latest fixes and improvements. The train model means that Salesforce.com can bring out new features incrementally. When the next train will be along in a couple of months, there’s no need to rush an under-developed feature to market. Certified administrators and developers must also pass a maintenance exam for every new release, assuring that key people are aware of the latest changes.

Test Coverage

Every day, Salesforce.com runs over 50,000 quality assurance tests on its own software. When Salesforce.com introduced the Apex customization language in 2009, mandatory test coverage was baked into the development model. Salesforce.com provides a platform based on high-quality, thoroughly tested code, and expects custom developers to do the same.

If you are ready for a safe, reliable, professionally-maintained business platform, Salesforce.com, the original Software as a Service provider, is still the best.