Salesforce.com unveils Database.com to challenge Oracle

Salesforce.com has unveiled a cloud-based relational database to be delivered on demand and paid for on a subscription basis.

Based on the company's already established database technology in Salesforce.com and Force.com, Database.com was announced at the cloud company's Dreamforce event in San Francisco and will take Marc Benioff's firm into competition with his old employer Oracle.

During the keynote at Dreamforce, attended by IT PRO, Benioff described the new service as "a world-class" database offering.

"Databases need to be in the cloud... just like everything else," Benioff told delegates.

"We have to go forward, we have to go into the next generation."

Due for launch next year, Database.com includes a full-text search engine and is also programmable, supporting triggers and stored procedures.

The service supports any language, such as Java and PHP, and is accessible from any platform, including Amazon, Google and Microsoft's Azure.

Salesforce.com said it had placed a heavy emphasis on security a concern often cited by IT teams when talking about cloud computing.

In perhaps a riposte to Oracle founder Larry Ellison's recent comments about Salesforce.com's multi-tenancy model having "horrible" security, the cloud company included a feature where when an issue was fixed for a single user, all other tenants got the same update.

"We all benefit from the same wisdom of 87,000 customers," said Steve Fisher, executive vice president of technology at Salesforce.com.

"As we add more users, it becomes more intelligent and more secure."

Fisher said Salesforce.com had to "rearchitect the database... so it manages itself."

This is on top of compliance with security standards, such as ISO 27001, and identity and authentication features designed to make it easy for administrators to determine which users can access what data.

"Database.com supports the most stringent security standards around," Fisher added.

Meanwhile, in a move to address shifting IT concerns in recent years, a built-in social data model has been integrated into Database.com, which Salesforce.com said has been optimised for mobility as well.

In terms of pricing, Database.com will be free for up to three users dealing with 100,000 records and making 50,000 transactions a month.

For every set of 100,000 transactions after that, companies will need to pay $10 (6.34) per month, and $10 per month for each additional set of 150,000 transactions.

In what appeared to be a recent win over Ellison's firm, HP reportedly ditched Oracle Siebel in favour of using Salesforce.com offerings.