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XactAndyXactAndy 

Using Salesforce internally - a blocker to business?

Hi,

We're starting to push our app out to customers, some of whom are comfortable with hosting their data offsite. However, we have some, who due to the sensitivity of the information are pushing back on hosting any data whatsoever offsite. For example, we have a big pharma opportunity and a defence one.

I understand all the arguments for persuading them otherwise, but where it is a matter of policy, we might hit a problem.

Is there any way technically in which hosting the data internally can be achieved?

Thanks,

Andy
RickyGRickyG
Andy -

I was having a discusson with someone about a situation like this just the other day.  The more typical question describes a situation where some data is absolutely sensitive and cannot leave the premises, while other information can be stored online.  An example would be a financial institution where the actual financial data must remain internal, but the Force.com platform offers a good solution for sending and tracking leads and campaigns that relate to that internal information.

One of the cleanest ways to handle this is to utilize the internal ID of all Force.com records.  This ID can be added to the relevant record in the internal database.  You can create an interface, such as a Web service, to query those internal records, and the service would return a list of the IDs.  The only place where sensitive information would be linked to the ID would be inside the firewall.

Make sense?  Hope this helps.
XactAndyXactAndy
Hi Richard,

I can see where that approach would be useful. However, it is the custom objects
themselves which are the sensitive data. I seem to remember Salesforce used to support
local hosting. Is that no longer the case?

Cheers,

Andy
DevAngelDevAngel
Local hosting?  Not that I can recall.  The Force.com is an on-demand, hosted, software as a service, platform as a service.  By definition, this means not on-premise.

We support mashing in data from applications that may be hosted elsewhere like ERP data and the like.  But local hosting of the platform?  Antithetical to the entire philosophy of on-demand.