Comment by synnik
15 years ago
We got the same impression when evaluating them for our enterprise. 98% of their sales pitch made them sound very sharp, and their technology is impressive.
But that last 2% made us scratch our heads and say, "Really?"
Stuff like telling us that they cannot possibly break our apps when they push new code to the underlying platforms, that we have no need for backups because version control will suffice, etc.
These things are probably true for operational needs, but they seemed to not think deeply about DR or edge cases.
as part of engineering at sfdc, I promise you we think very deeply about backups, DR and edge cases, as well as backwards compatibility, and not breaking your code/apis.
I'd like to think we have a good track record. not perfect, of course, but don't believe everything the sales dudes say. ;o)
Have to second Peter here (hi Peter:). I used to work there, and the only weird thing for me was that they were slow to get the social web for a bunch really smart technologists. It's the enterprise DNA I suppose, but that was the only thing that didn't sit well with me. Otherwise, solid company, great people.
Ah, yes, the sales guys -- the guy who visited us seemed very sharp, and we did get a good impression, overall. But he was dismissive of our DR/business continuity questions, and it raised a number of eyebrows, hence leaving us with the impression above...
I have no trouble believing that this is more of a perception issue than a technical issue.