Salesforce.com rolls out Force Sites web platform

Businesses running Salesforce.com can now build external websites based on the company's Force.com cloud computing platform.

Force Sites uses the Salesforce.com infrastructre to enable users to create custom, external-facing websites.

Robin Daniels, senior manager for product marketing, said, "With Force.com Sites, you can publish your web apps publicly." Built on the Force.com platform, he said the new Force Sites service allows users to develop and run their entire website using the Salesforce.com infrastructure.

Daniels said Force.com Sites enables users to create sites in a matter of days or weeks that are capable of handling hundreds of thousands of users. It is free for businesses with Enterprise Edition (up to 500,000 hits) or Unlimited Edition. If traffic goes above these thresholds, Daniels said users pay $1,000 per million hits.

Some websites using Force.com Sites

• http://www.dellsocialinnovationcompetition.com - a site built by Dell and the University of Texas to encourage students to participate in social projects
• http://future-leaders.org.uk/ - where members of the public can register as a mentor
• http://www.lasso2go.com/ - combines Amazon web service to transcribe photographs of business cards taken with an iPhone and load the data into the Salesforce.com database
• http://www.halfordscycle2work.ie/ - a Halfords-owned, government-sponsored site to encourage people to get on their bikes
• http://pledge5.starbucks.com/ - Starbucks' mentoring site