Zero-Copy Integrations

At the recent Salesforce World Tour NYC event, Salesforce introduced a new global ecosystem of technology and solution providers designed to assist its customers in leveraging third-party data through secure, bidirectional zero-copy integrations with Salesforce Data Cloud.

Tyler Carlson, VP of business development and strategic partnerships at Salesforce, highlighted the key challenge faced by many customers: integrating data from various platforms without creating multiple iterations and losing data lineage. Currently, some startups offer “reverse” ETL services, copying data from customers’ data warehouses or platforms back into systems of engagement. However, this approach requires duplicating data, creating storage spaces, and maintaining data synchronization pipelines.

To address these challenges, Salesforce introduced the Zero Copy Partner Network, which brings together ISVs and SIs to eliminate custom integrations and complex data pipelines. This network aims to provide businesses with a more efficient, secure, and user-friendly way to connect data to their applications compared to traditional ETL processes.

Zero-copy integration allows teams to access data directly from its source, either through queries or virtual access, without the need for data duplication. Salesforce has pioneered zero-copy bidirectional integrations with Data Cloud partners like Amazon Redshift, Databricks, Google Cloud’s BigQuery, and Snowflake. While integrations with BigQuery and Snowflake are generally available, those with Redshift and Databricks are still in pilot but expected to launch later this year.

Salesforce is expanding this network to include its ISV ecosystem, enabling them to build on top of zero-copy connectors to offer enrichment datasets and business applications with zero-copy integration. Additionally, the company is extending this capability to its SI ecosystem, ensuring that global SIs are certified and ready to assist customers with distributed zero-copy integration patterns.