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Betson RBetson R 

database.com force.con salesforce.com

Hi,
I am currently trying to learn salesforce.
Following is my understanding(correct me if i am wrong)

Database.com
-Database as a service.
-Uses oracle under the hood.
-Provides REST API service to interact with database.

Force.com
-Platform as a service.
-Provides metadata layer(Apex language,tool to edit/debug code,visualforce page etc.)
-Provides default metadata for database.com field types.
-Uses Database.com under the hood(for storing data and metadata).

Salesforce.com
-Software as a service.
-Uses Force.com under the hood.
-Provides few data model (i.e.schema) eg:-sales,marketing.
-Provides a framework(mainly UI) to create/configure various parameters of metadata and data model.

Question
I believe database.com, force.com and salesforce.com are 3 different services. But on searching I am always end up at salesforce CRM.Is it possible to use Database.com or Force.com alone i.e. without salesforce CRM?
Thank you!
Best Answer chosen by Betson R
Narender Singh(Nads)Narender Singh(Nads)
Yes Beston, technically we can use the database alone if we have the right credentials to make the authenticated API calls, and also the REST Api endpoints. We can use the retrieved data as per our needs then.

Salesforce's platform service(Force.com) is available in two forms. One comes as an attached tool with your Salesforce CRM account called Developer Console(Online version) and another as Force.com IDE (the offline tool).
And you are correct when you say that  "Salesforce CRM itself is a platform".

All Answers

Narender Singh(Nads)Narender Singh(Nads)
Hi Betson,
You are very much correct about the three services.

And to answer your question,
Salesforce is the company (Salesforce.com) which provides these cloud computing services. You can only use those services if salesforce allows you to. And to access these services we use our credentials which we get after getting registered with Salesforce. 
Am not sure what exactly you mean by using database.com or force.com. 
And also, I don't see the point of force.com alone (without database.com) because if there is not database what will do with force.com? The whole point of existense of force.com ceases to exist since it is purposey designed to acces the database of salesforce via a programmatical approach.
And similarly, no point of using database.com alone if you don't have the required tools to access it. 

I hope I was able to explain myself to some extent.
Let me know if you have any queries.

Regards,
Nads
Betson RBetson R
Hi Nads,
I couldn't find a way to reply to your answer hence adding my comment as an answer.
I view database.com as a remote database and web service(part of database.com) to access it.
For performing any database operation,user need to make respective web service calls.
User only needs to construct the right URL ( from method name,parameters etc.) and method type .Thats how REST works.
Thus there is no dependency on salesforce CRM or force.com.So technically i can use database.com alone.


I agree that force.com is incomplete without database.com.But when I login to salesforce it directly takes me to salesforce CRM which is a software and not the platform(force.com).I am interested in the platform.
To give an analogy,I want to learn Java language(platform),not the application(software) that was built using Java(I am a Java developer)
Currently everything(platform and software) seems to be mixed up.It looks as if salesforce CRM itself is a platform.
 
Narender Singh(Nads)Narender Singh(Nads)
Yes Beston, technically we can use the database alone if we have the right credentials to make the authenticated API calls, and also the REST Api endpoints. We can use the retrieved data as per our needs then.

Salesforce's platform service(Force.com) is available in two forms. One comes as an attached tool with your Salesforce CRM account called Developer Console(Online version) and another as Force.com IDE (the offline tool).
And you are correct when you say that  "Salesforce CRM itself is a platform".
This was selected as the best answer
Betson RBetson R
Thank you Narender Singh for your quick response and also for resolving my query.
 
Narender Singh(Nads)Narender Singh(Nads)
Happy to help. :)