Why the latest Salesforce release reminds me of the 80’s

Posted On by Dimitri Debaere

I’m a bit like Obelix, I fell into computers when I was a young boy. Daddy had his first laptop when I still had hair on my head (back in the 80’s, a laptop looked more like a suitcase), wore short pants and didn’t had the right to vote or drive a car :-)

Since then, I have never remained more than a couple of days away from a computer.

After my studies, I began to work in a small company selling hardware, software & advice for other companies. I worked there for more than 10 years before hearing about a new buzz: The Cloud. It sounded like something too good to be true:

  1. You didn’t have to install the software anymore.

  2. You didn’t have to worry about updates.

  3. You didn’t have to worry about backups.

  4. When you received a new computer, all you had to do is add the URL of the application to your favorite folder (and remember your login & password of course - even the Cloud did not find a better solution for this everlasting problem).

  5. Your data was accessible from home, from your company, from a hotel… everywhere!

So, I started to think that this was the future of computers & applications! The users always waited for some software company to make software easier to use and the revolution came from a side where nobody was expecting something that big.

I remember back in 2005, when I had to update 30 computers to the latest on-premise (read: non-Cloud) CRM software:

  1. It had to happen during a weekend as each computer took 45 min to update and - of course - the users had to remain productive.

  2. You had to call some users because you could not read their handwritten Windows password.

  3. Before installing, you had to find a way to free up some disk space on some computers because there was not enough place on the hard drive.

  4. After the new version was installed, you discovered that some computers were too old to run the new software version correctly.

  5. The installation needed 2 different CD’s per language and some customers ran the software in 4 languages. You had to bring your truck full of CD’s in order to have everything necessary.

Now, with the Cloud, as a Cloud based application administrator or user, all you have to do in case of update is:

  1. Go home on Friday evening.

  2. Have a good sleep.

  3. Have some beer.

  4. Go back to work on Monday morning.

  5. Enjoy the features delivered in the new version.

Back in the non-Cloud era, you stressed when a new version was available and now, you just think: “Let’s see what goodies are included in this new version?”

In short, the Cloud lets you concentrate on one thing: deliver the best possible application & user experience instead of losing precious time and energy. Three cheers for the Cloud!