Cloud Computing's Messiah: Marc Benioff's Cult of Personality
Are you a believer in the Cloud Gospel of Salesforce.com's CEO? His followers -- and ego -- grow larger each day.
To a rapt and packed-house last week, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff preached to the assembled masses—the 19,000 devotees attending the Dreamforce event in San Francisco, the 10,000 congregates on the edge of their seats during his keynote, the 3,000 faithful in the overflow room across the street, and the untold numbers listening in via the Internet. (It's all true, because Marc pointed all that out.) 
Image: (cc) Kenneth Yeung - www.thelettertwo.com
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"It is a sign that something here is happening in the software industry," Benioff declared.
Image: (cc) Kenneth Yeung - www.thelettertwo.com
At the outset of his sermon, which was laden with self-congratulation, hype and hyperbole, he tried to turn the spotlight on the fervent passion of all of those who worship at the Salesforce.com altar. "This company was created because of you," Benioff intoned from his pulpit, the choir nodding in approval. "This company was created because of the fundamental belief and inspiration you had in this model and this company. And we recognize that each and every day.... The reality is, it's about you."
But last week, Benioff's seemingly crowd-affirming sentiment couldn't have been more wrong and disingenuous. Dreamforce was not about the customers. Dreamforce was partly about Salesforce.com and its new offerings, but much more noticeably, it was about Benioff posturing himself as a latter-day cloud computing evangelist: The Savior with SaaS Software. The Cleric of the Cloud. The Evangelist of the End of Software.
Benioff promised a "90-minute or so" keynote. But 76 hours later, the showman was still going, and going, and going. Did anyone care? Didn't seem like it. Benioff's devotees in the Dreamforce audience, who dutifully lapped up his every exaltation, pronouncement and rewrite of software-industry history (to suit his own scripture), made Steve Job's Moscone Center audience seem like the crowd at a Michael Richards' standup comedy performance.
The Dreamforce Twitter feed (#df09) overflowed with more praise than heretical questions—though there was a handful of those and a few snide comments. Someone called him "IT's P.T. Barnum."
Part of me kept expecting a CIO who was "afflicted" by his company's use of Siebel CRM to be carried up to the stage, and then The Minister of Software Maladies would exorcise the demons from the CIOs' convulsing body: "You are saved, my brother!!" Benioff would proclaim, as he slapped his palm to the CIO's forehead, pushing him back into a group of Salesforce.com employees.
Benioff, of course, hales from the House of Larry Ellison (who's either the Antichrist or Second Coming in this whole scenario, depending on your license terms with Oracle), spawned from the depths of Oracle's Redwood Shores. So he learned from the master of enterprise software chicanery and self-aggrandizing presentations.
Now Benioff appears poised to take his place on the throne: Dreamforce attendees sought his autograph. Benioff has now got security goons and hoards of "handlers." He's got "The Good Book of Marc"—his tome Behind the Cloud recently published, complete with plenty of self-laudatory observations.
So what's the appeal? "Benioff has done a great job in simplifying complex products and concepts for the business user," says Ray Wang, partner in enterprise strategy at Altimeter Group, via e-mail. "This flies in the face of the complexity often marketed by his competitors. It's like the Mac vs. PC debate. The hype is more real than not, though many customers find disappointment when they realize
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