It isn't Cloud 1 or Cloud 2, but Cloud 1 to Cloud 2

BANGALORE, INDIA: When enterprise software major Salesforce.com began its journey to Cloud 2 towards the end of 2009, many termed it as an over anxious and extreme step from a company, which has today risen to become synonymous with the very word 'Cloud'.

Unlike the first half of 2010 where nothing major happened in this regard, the latter half of the year gave a little more insight into the company's Cloud 2 perspective with the launch of Chatter, an enterprise collaboration platform, then Database.com and the recent Chatter.com announcement.

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"Cloud 2 is all about being social and mobile," says Chuck Ganapathi, senior vice president, products, Salesforce.com to all those critics who said how could Salesforce be talking about the next stage of cloud computing, when the first stage itself is pinned under the weight of hype.

"We don't think that cloud 1 and cloud 2 as two choice that customers have to make. Cloud 1 and Cloud 2 are not separate products. When we say Cloud 2, we mean it is a natural evolution of the Cloud 1 platform. We think that Cloud 2 is going to drive all such customers, who are not yet in cloud, into cloud because all these companies have employees who are familiar with social networking platforms such as Facebook or Twitter," adds Chuck.

Salesforce nurtures a hope that by making it social and mobile and accessible over mobile phones, more and more companies will shed their inhibitions with regard to cloud.

“Cloud 2, which has the power of Cloud 1 and much more, will drive the adoption of cloud in a large scale,” concludes Chuck.