I've been implementing Salesforce for nonprofits for over a year and it's not Marc Benioff's evangelism that won me over, but the product itself. After seeing success story after success story unveiling right before my eyes, I am convinced that Salesforce is an amazing product. And by allowing my clients to offload their IT infrastructure and focus on business process and workflow optimization instead, they have become more successful. Not to mention the other litany of features such as ease of use, training and customizations.

Chatter a waste of time? Turn it off! It is completely customizable just like everything else, but seeing how people communicate these days, how Gen Y folks are maturing and coming into the business and will someday be in positions of power, I think that Chatter gives Salesforce an edge that other database applications do not have.

I do agree that the keynote was a bit long winded and the delivery was a bit showy here and there, but I don't think you're giving him enough credit. Salesforce didn't grow to be a $1.3 Billion Dollar Company based on Marc's enthusiasm alone!

I was *at* Dreamforce last week. And in general, I had a great time.

However, I didn't drink all the Kool Aid. I left in the middle of the keynote -it was rather dull and forced. There were *not* 19k people at Dreamforce. There were just 19k registrations.

About 9k or more of the registrations were free Expo passes that they handed out like water in the last few weeks.

And yes, there were empty seats around me in the keynote main hall. It was not sold out. And there were a few hundred people in the overflow room, not a few thousand. I looked. And those lucky people in the overflow room got to leave early, as the keynote dragged on.

A great product does not a class of products or industry segment make.

Salesforce.com may be a great product, but that doesn't mean that cloud computing is yet proven a viable solution for all.

If history follows true, cloud computing will become just one more tool in the IT repertoire.

Oh, and BTW, I hear that attorneys are creating a new breed of class action suits to quickly seize data in the clouds in support of civil and criminal actions, using the old FCC rules so the target of the suit doesn't even know when their data has been seized as is being analyzed. I'll bet Benioff isn't talking about that!

I think SFDC has done a good job with garnering the SME market(and a small larger market) with TCO message. Up Until now it was just them and maybe handful of others. With the company expanding into the platform and coming up with new offerings ServiceCloud and Chatter (is it that different from discussion threads we have seeing for years now) and more competition in the form of Google and MS looming, we now need to see how this mini-elephant will dance and stay true to the promises of agility. When u are young it is easy to run fast, as you get older the knees start buckling. So while tipping the hat for what he has "almost" single-handedly done in pushing SaaS to the front, Benioff now has the much tougher challenges ahead. So I agree it might be time to cut-down the portrayal of messiah and continue with the goal.

-Subraya Mallya

I applaud Marc and I did not attend the conference. It is rare today to see a CEO willingly come before a public forum; instead opting for the security of the board room.

Cloud computing has been around for decades. Anyone who uses a web site hosting company is in the clouds. Many small businesses can only obtain an ecommerce presence through cloud computing. The organizations will require social networking with many options.

The days of purchasing single-purpose applications are gone. Well, minus the dinosaur CIOs who do not have the ability to adequately plan for future business requirements. Popular software includes web-based functionality.

Now, whether an organization chooses to purchase the product is their decision. There definitely is competition in the area of business management.

Nice article Thomas. It was definitely engaging.