Force.Com Whitepaper

WHITEPAPER
The Force.com Multitenant Architecture
Understanding the Design of Salesforce.com’s Internet Application
Development Platform

The Force.com Multitenant Architecture: Understanding the Design of Salesforce.com’s Internet Application Development Platform 1
WHITEPAPER
ContentsAbstract................................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction............................................................................................................................................. 2
Multitenant Applications......................................................................................................................... 2
Comparing Raw CloudComputing and PaaS.......................................................................................... 3
Metadata-Driven Architectures............................................................................................................... 3
New Challenges and Emerging Solutions................................................................................................. 4Force.com Platform Architecture Overview............................................................................................. 4
Force.com Data Definition and Storage................................................................................................... 5
The Objects MetadataTable.............................................................................................................................5
The Fields Metadata Table................................................................................................................................5
The Data Table..................................................................................................................................................5
The ClobsTable................................................................................................................................................6
The Indexes Pivot Table....................................................................................................................................6
The UniqueFields PivotTable...........................................................................................................................7
The Relationships Pivot Table..........................................................................................................................7
The FallbackIndex Table...................................................................................................................................7
The NameDenormTable..................................................................................................................................7
History Tracking Table.....................................................................................................................................7
Partitioning of Data andMetadata...................................................................................................................8
Application Development, Logic, and Processing..................................................................................... 8
The Application Framework.............................................................................................................................8
Metadata and Web ServicesAPIs....................................................................................................................9
Bulk Processing with API Calls.......................................................................................................................9
Deletes, Undeletes, and The Recycle Bin........................................................................................................10
Data Definition...