SQL and Cloud Data Sources

Salesforce.com integration has been the driving force behind numerous projects and enterprise initiatives. Mapping the Saleforce.com mapping model, standard objects and core calls, in particular the Salesforce.com Object Query Language (SOQL) can be a major stumbling block for many enterprises. Across any enterprise or consumer platforms today be it .NET, Linux, Solaris or Java, off the shelf applications rely on data driven logic to shape their user experience and as the back bone of the transaction and data integrity– all driven under the covers by SQL and relational databases.

Here at Progress DataDirect, we've built our success on providing the plumbing and innovations that allow SQL driven applications to get at their data more quickly, using less resources supported with features that make our customers data driven applications more responsive to their needs.

Database.com captures the essence of the continuing blurring of the lines between today's understood enterprise software world and the hyper-drive speed of the cloud computing model that is driving much of today's innovation. The essential ingredient is the glue that joins the two worlds - provisioned by established software contracts that applications, developers and architects alike can rely upon and a ubiquitous query and manipulation language. While not often considered the sexiest piece of software, drivers existing beneath the JDBC, ODBC APIs are the unheralded kings of data access for every conceivable database. A robust SQL-92 experience for the advent of a redundant, multitenant, available, and importantly cloud-based database such as database.com will be critical for the success of web-based data sources – we've already seen this with SQL Azure's walk away from clunky interface to more TDS driven interaction model.

Today marks the beginning of an important partnership between Progress Software and Salesforce.com. Over the course of next weeks and months, we'll explore how to bring the worlds of worlds of established application infrastructure and database.com together.

To get you started on a SQL driven experience with database.com, we've posted a copy of today's demo from the Dreamforce keynote here.

You can also catch a replay of the replay of the demo in the YouTube clip below...

Some topics to look forward to include

• SQL Insert/Update/Delete/Modify to database.com
• SQL to Salesforce.com Reporting infrastructure
• Advanced Query Optimization and Performance Tips
• Injecting Fault Tolerance into database.com Applications
• Bulk Loading into database.com

Of course, we'd like to see your ideas here, so comment below!