Salesforce.com and Google expand their alliance

In a Jan. 3rd announcement, Salesforce.com announced an expansion of its global strategic alliance with Google. In announcing the availability of Force.com for Google App Engine™, the team has connected two of the industry’s leading cloud computing platforms. This could definitely help in expanding the number of applications available through cloud-based services. It also bears watching.

In my earlier post on cloud interoperability , I discussed three paths to accomplishing this worthy goal:

• “Standards Body” Approach
• “Adopt Proven Technology” Approach
• “Customer Driven” Approach

This clearly fits in the second bin. While I welcome this expansion of cloud capability, the cloud titans should also keep the greater community in mind as they move forward. That may mean a more open Salesforce.com.

The quote from Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com is that,“We have an open vision for cloud computing.” Sounds good but as the late President Ronald Reagan would put it, “doveriai, no proveriai” (Trust, but verify).