Salesforce.com is using its annual Dreamforce conference to unveil Database.com, its new standalone cloud database for IT pros creating applications. The company claims that developers for nearly any device and platform will be able to leverage Database.com's features, even for applications using Amazon EC2 and other non-Salesforce.com cloud platforms.

"We see cloud databases as a massive market opportunity that will power the shift to enterprise applications that are natively cloud, mobile and social," Marc Benioff, Salesforce's chairman and CEO, wrote in a Dec. 7 statement. "For the first time, we are making Database.com, the database that is proven and trusted by our 87,000 customers, available as an open, standalone service to accelerate the creation of these new apps."

In addition to file storage and standard Web-services APIs, Database.com offers a relational data store for tables, relationships, enterprise search, and a query language. As with Salesforce.com's other offerings, one of the selling points of the online database is its automatic upgrading and backup capability.

Database.com recognizes a variety of developer languages, including Java, C#, Ruby and PHP. It also supports running apps on platforms such as Salesforce.com's own Force.com, VMforce, Amazon EC2, Google AppEngine, Microsoft Azure and Heroku. Security certifications include ISO 27001, SAS 70 Type II, and SysTrust.

For more, read the eWeek article: Salesforce.com Unveils Database.com, Enterprise Database Built for Cloud.

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