💃 The Great Salesforce Showdown 🕺

Good morning, Salesforce Nerds! 🌅 

Ready to tackle one of the most misunderstood - yet simple - questions in the ecosystem?

Just what is the difference between Salesforce.com and Force.com (now known as Salesforce Platform)?

Today we’re going peel back a few layers of this onion. 🧅 

Hopefully it doesn’t make us cry …

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Great Salesforce Showdown

• First thing to know

• The Force.com awakens

• Salesforce.com to the rescue

• Moral of the Story

LET’S LEVEL SET

First thing to know

Before we get to the goods on our beloved platform let’s understand two key concepts:

⚡️ SaaS - Software as a Service

SaaS is like an all-inclusive resort where everything is set up for you to enjoy. 🍹 Just show up and start consuming!

Think of all the pre-packaged, ready-to-use software that you can access over the internet. These are SaaS environments.

Salesforce.com is amongst the best! 💪 

⚡️ PaaS - Platform as a Service

PaaS, on the other hand, is akin to a DIY vacation package where you decide the itinerary. 😰 Much more is involved!

These provide a blank canvas for developers, providing the tools & frameworks needed to build and deploy custom applications.

Force.com is amongst the best! 💪 

This 👆️ image shows the differences between the two. We’re ignoring IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) right now. 🤫 

Confuzzled? Don’t stress, we got you.

THE UNSUNG GENIUS

The Force.com awakens

Force.com is Salesforce’s answer to a PaaS environment, and it’s as versatile as a Swiss Army knife. 🔪 

Whether you’re crafting a simple app to manage office snacks or designing a complex enterprise solution, Force.com has got you covered.

I’ll bet you’re already familiar with some of the tools in the toolkit! 🧰 

🛠️ Apex

Salesforce’s proprietary programming language, designed specifically for Force.com.

It’s like the lightsaber in a developer’s toolkit - powerful, precise, and elegant. ⚔️ 

With Apex, developers can write custom business logic directly on the platform.

For example, you can create triggers that automatically update records, enforce complex business rules, or even integrate with external systems. 🔥 

🛠️ Lightning Web Components

LWC’s are reusable building blocks for modern web interfaces.

Think of them as LEGO bricks that you can snap together to build sophisticated UIs quickly and efficiently. 🧱 

These components are built using the Lightning framework, which ensures they’re fast, responsive, and scalable.

🛠️ AppExchange

AppExchange is Salesforce’s app marketplace, a bustling bazaar where you can find pre-built apps and components to enhance your Force.com solutions. 🏪 

With thousands of available options there’s something for everyone!

🛠️ Salesforce DX

Salesforce DX is a set of tools and practices designed to improve the development lifecycle on Force.com.

It’s how modern Salesforce developer teams move - assisting with version control, continuous integration, and automated testing. 🔥 

THE DASHING HERO

Salesforce.com to the rescue

The SaaS superstar! 🤩⭐️🎥 

As a Software as a Service (SaaS) product, Salesforce.com delivers fully functional CRM capabilities right out of the box.

No installation, no fuss - just log in and start managing your customer relationships, sales processes, and marketing campaigns. 🔥 

We all know the key characteristics of fresh instances:

✅ Ready-to-Use: It’s a complete CRM solution that’s ready to go the moment you sign up. I’m talking Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, or Marketing Cloud - everything is set up for you to start using immediately.

✅ User-Friendly: Designed with the end-user in mind, Salesforce.com boasts an intuitive interface that requires minimal training.

✅ Feature-Rich: With features like contact management, opportunity tracking, lead generation, and analytics, Salesforce.com covers all your bases.

All of this built on top of the Force.com platform! 🤯 

But wait, there’s more!

As Salesforce professionals we can extend each Salesforce application even more with new objects, fields, validations, flows, etc..

This is done using the Force.com platform as well. 🤯🤯 

It’s like … Force.com-ception

TAKEAWAY

Moral of the Story

Easy.

Force.com is the underlying platform that Salesforce’s native apps and your customizations (either to native apps or custom apps of your own) are built on.

Boom. 💥 

Go update the skills section of your your resume with Force.com. 😄 Actually, you better write “Salesforce Platform”.

Remember, that’s it’s official name now!

SOUL FOOD

Today’s Principle

and now....Salesforce Memes