Salesforce.com Officially Opens Singapore Data Center to Serve Increased Global Adoption of Enterprise Cloud Computing

Salesforce.com surpassed 5,000 customers in Asia-Pacific in first quarter of fiscal 2010, including industry leaders Crocs, Pacnet, Ricoh and more Demonstrates industry leadership with major international investment in global real-time cloud computing infrastructure


SINGAPORE, July 15  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM), the enterprise cloud computing company, today announced that customers are adopting Salesforce CRM applications and the Force.com platform in record numbers across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

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  --  The company surpassed 5,000 customers in APAC in its first fiscal
      quarter of 2010, including industry leaders Crocs, Pacnet, Ricoh and
      more.
  --  Salesforce.com cloud computing applications, including the Sales Cloud
      and the Service Cloud, as well as the Force.com platform for
      developing and deploying custom cloud applications, allow customers to
      focus on managing their businesses - rather than managing the cost and
      complexity associated with software and hardware infrastructure.
  --  To further accelerate international expansion and adoption of
      enterprise cloud computing, salesforce.com's first international data
      center is now live in Singapore.
  --  Along with its two North American data centres, the new Singapore
      facility allows the company to meet the service demands of its rapidly
      growing international customer base as well as extend the capacity,
      redundancy and scalability of its infrastructure.

  --  Supporting the data centre infrastructure will be a new Network
      Operations Centre (NOC) headquartered in Singapore. The NOC enables
      24x7, follow-the-sun monitoring of the company's data centres in North
      America and Singapore.




"Asia-Pacific is our fastest growing market, and there has never been a better time for enterprise cloud computing," said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. "Our new Singapore data center represents continued investment in our global real-time infrastructure to accelerate customer success with cloud computing worldwide."

"We welcome the decision of salesforce.com to locate its first data centre outside the U.S. in Singapore. This significant development will add to the richness of Singapore's infocomm landscape, increasing the confidence of SMEs in using SaaS for business productivity and contributing to our Cloud Computing eco-system," said Mr. Andrew Khaw, Senior Director and Group Head, Industry Development, of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. "As an established trusted hub, with excellent infocomm connectivity, Singapore is in a strong position to support fast-growing international infocomm companies such as salesforce.com in delivering innovative web-based services to customers here and globally."

"We congratulate salesforce.com on the launch of its first international data centre in Singapore, just three years after establishing its Asia-Pacific headquarters here. Salesforce.com's rapid growth in the region and decision to host its enterprise cloud computing applications and information here attests to our reputation of being a stable, secure and trusted hub for businesses," said Mr. Manohar Khiatani, Deputy Managing Director, Economic Development Board of Singapore.

Enterprise Cloud Computing Momentum in Asia Pacific

Springboard Research forecast that the Asia Pacific Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market will reach US$1.16B by 2010, based on a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 66 percent. By then, SaaS will comprise 15 percent of the enterprise software applications market in Asia Pacific.

"SaaS is moving beyond its roots in customer relationship management (CRM) into every area of the enterprise, including platforms for application development," said Dane Anderson, CEO of Springboard Research. "With all segments of the cloud computing market growing, we are seeing applications and platforms being adopted across the board by enterprises in the region and, perhaps most importantly, the enterprises we interview are very satisfied."

Asia Pacific Industry Leaders Adopting the Cloud

In its earnings report for the first quarter of fiscal 2010, salesforce.com noted 36 percent revenue growth in Asia Pacific compared to the same quarter a year prior, as customers continue to adopt enterprise cloud computing to run their businesses.

More than 5,000 customers across the Asia-Pacific region are now using enterprise cloud computing from salesforce.com to run their businesses, including AAPT, Acer, Amcor, CGU Insurance, Challenger Financial Services, Crocs, Datacraft, Flight Centre, Hang Seng Bank, Mizuho Private Wealth Management, Ottagi, Pacnet, Ramco, Ricoh, SPH Search, VSNL and Telecom New Zealand.

"With salesforce.com and the cloud computing model we were able to get up and running in record time compared to the on-premise CRM alternatives," said Mr. Richard Carden, Managing Director (Asia) of Pacnet. "We were able to quickly customize Salesforce CRM to the specific needs of our business, which in turn has driven strong user adoption with our employees."

"CIOs and IT departments at Asia-Pacific enterprises recognize the innovation, time-to-value and ease-of-use that salesforce.com delivers with cloud computing," said Lindsey Armstrong, executive vice president of international enterprise sales, salesforce.com. " Enterprises are realizing that this is the era of cloud computing, and salesforce.com gives businesses the ability to harness the power of cloud computing to better their companies."

Customers named in this release are part of the 59,300 customers of all sizes, industries and geographies that comprised the salesforce.com customer base as of April 30, 2009.

About salesforce.com

Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company. The company's portfolio of Salesforce CRM applications, available at http://www.salesforce.com/products/, has revolutionized the ways that companies collaborate and communicate with their customers across sales, marketing and service.  The company's Force.com platform (http://www.salesforce.com/platform/) enables customers, partners and developers to quickly build powerful business applications to run every part of the enterprise in the cloud.  Based on salesforce.com's real-time, multi-tenant architecture, Salesforce CRM and Force.com offer the fastest path to customer success with cloud computing.

As of April 30, 2009, salesforce.com manages customer information for approximately 59,300 customers including Allianz Commercial, Dell, Dow Jones Newswires, Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE, and SunTrust Banks.  Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all.  Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available.  Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM". For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.com/, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

Copyright (c) 2009 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce and the "no software" logo are registered trademarks of salesforce.com, inc., and salesforce.com owns other registered and unregistered trademarks. Other names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. 

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