Salesforce Platform & Environments

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, Customer Relationship Management is increasingly controlling the final results. Also, the compound annual growth rate of adopting CRM by 2028 is expected to rise by 12%. To achieve the best in their CRM, organizations are increasingly turning to powerful tools, with Salesforce platform leading the charge.

Salesforce is renowned for its versatility and ability to streamline various business processes, thanks to its robust platform and flexible environments. In this tutorial, we will delve into the world of Salesforce as a platform, its architecture benefits, environment types, uses, and environment license upgrading. 

What is Salesforce Platform?

Salesforce Platform was formerly known as Force.com. It is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) product that simplifies both the development and deployment process of cloud-based applications and websites. By using this platform, developers can create multiple kinds of enterprise and business applications without using any extra hardware or software.

Salesforce platform offers features such as better efficiency by removing any worries related to database maintenance. At its core, Salesforce Platform enables organizations to create and customize applications that cater to their unique needs, making it a versatile solution for various industries. Here is a little Salesforce platform overview for you guys to remember:

• It is entirely cloud-based, meaning it operates totally over the internet. 
• At its core, it is a CRM platform that allows businesses to store and manage customer data, including contact information, preferences, and communication history.
• It is highly customizable and provides tools for reporting and analytics.
• It offers wider options for integration, such as REST and SOAP APIs to connect with other systems and data sources. 

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Architecture of Salesforce Platform

Salesforce platform architecture is called multi-tenant, which allows a single instance of software to serve multiple users or tenants. Each tenant’s data is logically separated and secured, ensuring data isolation and privacy. It proves to be economical due to the sharing of resources and maintenance. Also, there can be a single instance of a software server with multiple tenants.

Next, let’s take a look at some major benefits offered by Salesforce Platform. 

Benefits of Salesforce Platform

Salesforce, as a leader in CRM platforms, is known for its robust capabilities and versatility. Hence, some of the major benefits of Salesforce Platform are as follows:

• It enables the creation of a comprehensive view of every customer, including their preferences, inclinations, and history. 
• Salesforce itself is highly scalable, thus making it suitable for businesses of various sizes.
• It eliminates the need for complex on-premises infrastructure and maintenance due to being a cloud-based platform.
• It offers powerful automation tools such as workflow automation, process builder, and flow.
• It seamlessly integrates with various third-party applications and services.
• Salesforce offers mobile applications that enable users to access critical data and functionality on the go. 

You must be familiar with Salesforce and its benefits now. In the next part, we will further explore the key characteristics of Salesforce Environment. So, keep going to know more about it!

Characteristics of Salesforce Environment

There are multiple characteristics connected with the environments of Salesforce. Some important ones are as follows: 

• It contains data (Records) and customizations (Custom Database objects and fields).
• It is used for development, testing, and production. 
• Environments are not provisioned with certain advanced features such as multi-currency or develop preview technology by default. One can request activation of such functionality by contacting the official site Salesforce.com in the customer support column. 
• Although it is possible to access all environments through a Web browser, you can also access it from Force.com IDE, SOAP.
• Every environment is based on an edition that contains specific objects, storage, functionality, and limits. 
• Environments are designed while keeping data isolation in mind to ensure integrity and security.
• Different kinds of environments offer varied levels of resources.
• Environments support version control integration, ensuring that changes are tracked, managed, and documented. 

Collectively, Salesforce environment forms a structured development and deployment lifecycle. It also allows organizations to manage changes effectively, minimize risks, and maintain the stability of their live Salesforce systems. Next, let’s take a look at the types and uses of the available environments in Salesforce. 

What is Salesforce Environment?

Salesforce environments are distinct spaces within the Salesforce Platform where you can build, test, and deploy applications. They play a pivotal role in ensuring that changes and customizations do not disrupt your existing business operations via the acceleration of application development. Here are the primary types of Salesforce environments:

So, here is a brief description of all the main types of Salesforce environments. Different kinds of people make use of these environments at their convenience. So, let’s dive deeper into the uses of Salesforce Environments.

Production Environment

This is the live environment where your users interact with Salesforce daily. There are active paying users in this environment who access business-critical data. Changes made in developer or sandbox environments are eventually deployed here. 

Developer Environment

This environment is used by developers for coding and creating custom functionalities without affecting the production environment.  These are those environments where you can develop, integrate, and extend on Force.com without affecting your production environments.

Sandbox Environment

Sandboxes are copies of your production environment, used for testing and development purposes. They allow you to experiment with changes before implementing them in the live environment. More specific usage includes testing functionality before releasing it to customers or deploying it to production. 

Uses of Salesforce Environment

Customers

Customers mainly use the production environment to run their day-to-day business operations. This is the place for managing customer data, executing sales and marketing activities, and providing customer support. 

Partners

Partners often work closely with Salesforce, thus requiring multiple development and testing environments. These environments allow them to build, customize, and test Salesforce solutions for their clients. They can create fine-tuned custom applications, configurations, and integrations in these environments before deploying them to the client’s production environment. 

Developers

Salesforce developers, whether individual or working with Salesforce partners, use developer editions to write and test code, develop custom features, and experiment with new Salesforce functionalities. 

Do you need clarification on why so many environments are used in Salesforce? Having distinct environments for various purposes ensures data integrity, minimizes risks, and supports efficient development and testing of Salesforce solutions. It also allows for different user roles (customers, developers, partners) to work cohesively in Salesforce while maintaining a clear separation between live business operations and activities such as development or testing. Further, we will discuss environment licenses in Salesforce. 

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Environment Licenses and Upgrading in Salesforce

For effective utilization of Salesforce environments, it’s essential to understand environment licenses and the process of upgrading. Licenses determine who can access specific environments and what they can do within them. Upgrading involves moving changes and customizations from one environment to another. There are a total of 4 production licenses, namely:

• Group Edition
• Professional Edition
• Enterprise Edition
• Unlimited Edition 

The environment of Salesforce itself has changed a lot but in an upward direction. In such a case, one can start functioning with a group edition and then upgrade it with a professional edition > Enterprise edition > Unlimited edition. 

There is a particular type of license that does not allow for conversion to production and is called a development license. It is the same for Sandbox. One cannot upgrade Sandbox but can buy additional or different types of Sandbox if that particular individual has enterprise or unlimited Force.com edition.

Conclusion

Salesforce stands as a beacon of versatility, streamlining countless business processes thanks to its robust architecture and flexible settings. As we navigate deeper into this Salesforce ecosystem, the next destination in our tutorial series is the intriguing world of “Production Environments in Salesforce.” 

Here, we’ll uncover how organizations harness the live environment for their daily operations, where customer interactions and critical data take center stage. Stay with us to gain a comprehensive understanding of how Salesforce empowers businesses to thrive in today’s CRM landscape.

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