Seeking broader partnerships for cloud infrastructure will likely save Salesforce money. This push is already underway. A week ago, Salesforce revealed it is leveraging Microsoft Azure for its Marketing Cloud platform. That announcement is an eyebrow raiser considering the undulating relationship the two companies have. Microsoft and Salesforce have been partners before, such as the SalesForce1 Windows 10 app supporting (now defunct) Continuum, while the company also adopted Outlook for its email management. Of course, that does not remove the fact that Salesforce and Microsoft are CRM rivals. Indeed, the relationship between the companies took on a familiar frosty feel during Microsoft’s $27 billion LinkedIn acquisition. Salesforce was a rival bidder and warned regulators to watch the deal closely. So, the Marketing Cloud link with Microsoft Azure was a surprise. Furthermore, the companies will integrate Salesforce CRM records into Microsoft Teams. This ability is already available on Teams rivals Slack.
Multi-Cloud
Elsewhere, Salesforce is also partnering with other cloud vendors. The company has collaborated with Alibaba Cloud to afford its services more presence in China. In terms of Google Cloud, Salesforce uses G Suite and now actively promotes it to customers. Additionally, the company now names Google Cloud has a preferred partner for international markets.
