Salesforce Data Cloud provides a data visualization and analysis layer. It can connect with different BI tools and enable users to analyze customer data in the form of charts, tables, graphs, and more. Tableau and CRM analytics are some of the in-house analytics tools. However, it can also connect with other BI tools like Power BI.
The data in Data Cloud can be connected to Datorama, which helps to visualize and present campaign performance data to stakeholders. It is used by companies to share the performance of marketing campaigns with their clients.
The Lightning-based App, Setup, and Metadata
The topmost layer is the all-familiar lightning UI, which Salesforce users are familiar with. It contains all Salesforce applications, connecting to AppExchange products, metadata, data model, and more. Users can create custom pages, components, and workflows using the Lightning App Builder, a drag-and-drop interface that allows users to create custom interfaces without writing code.
Metadata refers to the configuration and customization data that defines how Salesforce CDP is configured and used. This includes objects, fields, workflows, and other elements that define the platform’s data model and user interface.
Metadata in Salesforce Data Cloud is managed using the Metadata API, which allows users to retrieve, modify, and deploy metadata components across different environments. This enables organizations to manage the configuration of Salesforce Data Cloud across multiple instances, such as development, testing, and production environments.
Salesforce Data Cloud uses Amazon AWS services for most of its needs (refer to Figure 4.4).
Figure 4.4: Salesforce Data Cloud architecture is dependent on AWS service
The storage is managed by Amazon RDS, AWS S3, and DynamoDB. Big data processing is performed using Amazon EMR. Data transformation, lighting-enabled data tables, and model mappings are handled by Amazon Elastic Container Kubernetes. CDP processing is done using Amazon ElastiCache, Amazon Simple Queue Service, and Amazon Elastic Container Kubernetes. Activation channels use Amazon EMR and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). Data connectors and ingress are managed by Amazon Data Sync and Amazon Elastic Container Kubernetes. Control and management planning is conducted using Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Identity and Access Management, and AWS Autoscaling.