Salesforce, AWS merge efforts for new service integrations

Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud-computing services provider and CRM company Salesforce today expanded their global strategic alliance. The duo announced they will deliver five service integrations designed to simplify and expand how customers capture, analyze and take action on their data. Additionally, the companies announced that Canada will be the first new AWS Region supported in Salesforce’s planned international infrastructure expansion on AWS. With this move, the CRM giant claims that its customers will be able to use the company’s core service—including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Community Cloud, Analytics Cloud—delivered on AWS cloud infrastructure in Canada, with general availability expected in mid-2017.

“We’re thrilled to extend our great partnership with AWS. Integrating AWS’ industry-leading infrastructure services and technologies with Salesforce will bring even more exceptional solutions to our customers,” said Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO, Salesforce.

Extending Global Strategic Alliance to deliver service integrations

As part of the global strategic alliance, the companies have announced to deliver integrations that will connect the Salesforce Platform with Amazon AppStream 2.0, AWS IoT, Amazon Redshift, Alexa and Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC). The integrations include:

• Desktop Apps within Salesforce Lightning through Amazon AppStream 2.0: Amazon AppStream 2.0 is a fully managed, secure application streaming service that allows customers to stream desktop applications from AWS to any device running a web browser, without rewriting them. It provides users instant-on access to the applications they need, and a responsive, fluid experience on the device of their choice. Amazon AppStream 2.0 is expected to be made available in the Salesforce AppExchange as a Lightning Component, enabling customers to integrate streaming applications from the AWS Cloud directly within Salesforce.
• An End-to-End IoT Solution with Salesforce IoT Cloud and AWS IoT: The duo is building a new native integration to help businesses generate value from the trillions of events generated by connected devices. AWS IoT is a managed cloud platform that lets connected devices easily and securely interact with cloud applications and other devices. IoT Cloud connects with AWS IoT to combine device data with customer data in Salesforce, allowing businesses to create meaningful customer experiences based on real-time activity across all their connected devices.
• A Connected Analytics Solution with Salesforce Wave Analytics and Amazon Redshift: The two companies are building a new connector that links data from Amazon Redshift, a fully managed, petabyte-scale data warehouse service, to Wave Analytics, a flexible analytics solution and suite of apps for sales, service, marketing and IT. By combining it with the scalability of Amazon Redshift, customers will be able to analyze large datasets. This claims to enable businesses to instantly explore information, find insights, and take actions from a greater variety and volume of data—all without investing the significant time and resources required to administer a self-managed on premises data warehouse.
• Smart Voice Apps with the Salesforce Platform and Alexa Toolkit: Alexa, the brain behind Amazon Echo, provides capabilities that enable customers to interact with devices in an intuitive way using voice input. The Alexa Toolkit is a collection of technical resources from both Alexa and Salesforce that will allow developers to easily harness the power from both together to build compelling voice-enabled experiences. Developers will be able to learn how to build Alexa Skills for Salesforce through Trailhead, the fun and easy Salesforce learning platform.
• Simple, Secure Connections between Salesforce Heroku Applications and Amazon VPCs: Amazon VPC Peering is added for Salesforce Heroku Private Spaces to help businesses establish network connections between their Heroku applications and Amazon VPCs with all the security and compliance benefits of a private network. The integration is claimed to be as simple as connecting two Amazon VPCs, and provides the same security characteristics as well.

“We are excited to expand our strategic relationship with Salesforce. These new integrations across business intelligence, IoT, and developer tools will make it easier for our joint customers to analyze data and build new applications,” said Andy Jassy, CEO, AWS.

Pricing and Availability

AppStream 2.0 is expected to be generally available in AppExchange as a Lightning Component in the first half of 2017. The new IoT integration is currently available in preview, with a full release scheduled for 2017. The new Amazon Redshift connector is expected to be generally available in the first half of 2017. The prices of these integrations will be announced at the time of general availability. The Alexa for Salesforce Toolkit and Trailhead for Alexa Skills are expected to be generally available to customers in the first half of 2017 at no additional cost. VPC Peering for Heroku Private Spaces is currently in beta, and is expected to be generally available in the first half of 2017 to Heroku Private Spaces customers at no additional cost. Salesforce’s core services are expected to be available on AWS public cloud infrastructure in Canada in mid-2017.