Game over. Apps have won.

Everyday we hear about the amazing numbers of users on apps like Evernote, Dropbox, Flipboard, and dozens of others. The massive adoption of apps has completely reset the way we work. Developers are building these apps, making them social, and synchronizing them with the cloud. But there is a problem. Companies are burdened with old, complicated platforms and servers that just don’t work in this new world of mobile, social, and always real-time apps.

Traditional integration strategies took a data centric approach. Data would be moved between one system to another with complex point-to-point connections. Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) and the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) tried to address the problem, but didn’t anticipate how apps have come to dominate the way we work. As productive as apps can be, developers must be careful not to lock information in these apps, unable to share content with other employees.

Something had to change. Using traditional integration strategies in an app-centric world is like using a stagecoach to deliver your mail, or transfer money between accounts. 

Developers needed a new way.

Simply unlocking apps to share data with your employees and business is not enough. Killer apps turn this data into information by leveraging context. Context allows apps to instantly know who the user is, what records matter to them, where they are geolocated, and what’s the relevant social graph.

At salesforce.com, we understand the power of context. We serve over 60 million recommendations a month via Chatter to help users get their job done. And developers and partners are using the salesforce platform as the new integration layer for next generation apps. They are building applications using rich identity services, mobile-friendly REST APIs, JSON for data interchange, social graph primitives for following anyone, or any record, and workflow that integrate in real-time with the apps your users already love.

If you are looking at building game changing apps check out the salesforce platform. It was built for someone just like you. Start by signing up for a free developer edition account today, and joining the growing community of developers who are building the social enterprise.