Cloud Communications Feature
Salesforce.com Acquires Cloud Communications Company Dimdim
- Alert), an enterprise cloud computing company, has completed its acquisition of Dimdim. Dimdim focuses on cloud-based communications and has created critical real-time communication technologies including presence, messaging, and screen sharing. The acquisition gives Salesforce.com Dimdim’s real-time communication capabilities, along with a team of developers experienced in building cloud-based collaboration services.
Salesforce.com will use the acquisition to introduce new real-time communication capabilities to the Chatter collaboration platform, mirroring Facebook’s (News - Alert) model in which collaboration and communication are combined into an integrated service.
“Facebook has fundamentally changed the way we communicate in our personal lives,” said Marc Benioff (News - Alert), chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com, in a statement. “The acquisition of Dimdim will help Salesforce.com deliver to the enterprise the same integrated collaboration and communication experience that made Facebook the world’s most popular Internet site.”
D. D. Ganguly, Dimdim’s CEO, commented on the benefits of the acquisition. “From our start, Dimdim has focused on enabling real-time communication in the cloud, with no software. Salesforce.com gives us the opportunity to apply our expertise and align our vision of real-time, social enterprise software in the cloud — at a scale that wouldn’t have been otherwise possible.”
In its first phase, cloud computing was about leveraging technologies that offered low cost, speed, and ease of use. The transition in the industry to Cloud 2 represents a new generation of cloud computing that is social, mobile, and real time.
Facebook initiated this shift by training users around the world on real-time collaboration, including feeds and status updates. It proved the value of integrated collaboration and communication, with such services as presence and messaging helping to fuel user adoption.
With its Salesforce Chatter collaboration platform, Salesforce.com took a similar path. Over 60,000 customers have deployed Chatter since its release, making it the company’s most-popular offering. With Dimdim, Salesforce.com is taking a similar path by offering an integrated collaboration and communication platform. The goal is to drive greater Chatter adoption, increase customer loyalty, and differentiate the company’s product portfolio.
In related news, Salesforce.com recently acquired Heroku, a cloud platform for writing Ruby-based applications. Heroku powers more than 110,000 next-generation social and mobile cloud applications. As a result, Java and Ruby—the major Cloud 2 languages—will be supported by the Salesforce.com cloud platform.
Andrew Litz brings more than 20 years of experience in publishing to his role as Web Editor at TMC (News - Alert), where he covers cloud computing, networking, and other related areas. Previously, Andrew served as a technical editor for a leading analyst firm providing research and advisory services to users of information technology, as well as providing editorial support to the IEEE (News - Alert), a global professional society in the areas of electrical engineering and electronics. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Andrew Litz
