Introduction

Salesforce is a leading cloud-based CRM platform that offers highly customized solutions for its customers, partners, and employees. Salesforce has a multilayer architecture; it incorporates one layer above the other. There is a component that is fundamental to Salesforce Architecture that we’ll look into in-depth and also take a look at the multilayered architecture.

Multilayer Architecture

As the above image suggests everything that Salesforce encompasses resides in the trusted, multitenant cloud. The layered architecture is what makes Salesforce’s multiple, powerful functionalities a reality. The Salesforce Platform is the bedrock of all their utilities, and it consists of APIs, Artificial Intelligence, and Data Services, all powered by metadata. All apps rest upon this platform, pre-built apps such as Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and the apps available on the AppExchange.

Let’s look at some of the core components that are key to Salesforce Architecture.

Multitenant Cloud

One of the major reasons why Salesforce is one of the most popular CRM software in the market can be attributed to its multitenant architecture, just as the name suggests, there are multiple tenants residing in their own secure homes, but the homes are a replica of one another. In simple terms, you are sharing your assets, from mom-and-pop stores to Fortune 500 companies are neighbors in the cloud. No matter what your organization does, you have access to the same data storage, computing powers, and key features, which makes Salesforce more robust and economical.

A single-tenant architecture implies more cost for the single user, individual updates, and higher development costs. This makes Salesforce ideal, multitenancy for the win!

Metadata

Metadata is essentially data about data, Salesforce stores the metadata in the shared database along with the data, thus storing data along with what the data does, which is key in making Salesforce more scalable, customizable, and secure. Metadata can be of a few different types such as Data, Programmability, Presentation, etc. As a simple example, Users, accounts, and Contacts to name a few have fields for entry or metadata. Metadata at its core helps make sense of your data.

APIs

In layman’s terms, Application Program Interfaces (APIs) allow two software components to communicate with each other using a set of rules and protocols. Each time you check the weather snippets on your phone or use the log-in using Google / Apple you are making use of APIs. If you’ve noticed, each time you create a custom object or field in your org, Salesforce creates an API name for the same object or field, and this API name is essentially used as an access point between your org and database. When you try to access something, Salesforce uses this API name to access the Metadata and data you are looking for. Thus, the entirety of your data and metadata are API enabled, which imparts a good deal of flexibility to Salesforce. APIs make it possible to interface your applications with other applications and programming frameworks.