As of January 31, 2025, Salesforce will be discontinuing its service known as Salesforce Functions, also recognized as Salesforce Elastic Services. To maintain the functionality of the functions deployed within your organization, it is imperative to transition them to an alternative product before the specified end-of-life date.
This article will delve into an exploration of Salesforce Functions (or Salesforce Elastic Services), outlining their features, the advantages associated with their use, and what lies ahead for individuals and organizations currently leveraging this technology.
What are Salesforce Functions?
Salesforce Elastic Services comprise a suite of cloud-based offerings enabling developers to create and implement scalable applications seamlessly within the Salesforce platform. Specifically designed to manage substantial data volumes and high traffic, these services offer the flexibility to scale resources dynamically, catering to the evolving requirements of your application.
Benefits of Salesforce Functions
Salesforce Functions, introduced in Winter ’22, offer several advantages for developers:
1. Automatic Scaling:
Enjoy the convenience of automatic scaling, ensuring your application seamlessly adjusts its capacity based on demand without the need for manual intervention.
2. High Availability:
Salesforce Functions are engineered with robust redundancy measures, minimizing the risk of outages and enhancing the overall availability of your applications.
3. Global Reach:
Benefit from the global presence of Salesforce Functions, available in data centers across the world. This allows you to deploy your applications to customers wherever they are located.
4. Security and Compliance:
Leveraging the robust foundation of the Salesforce platform, Salesforce Functions prioritizes security and compliance. The platform adheres to high standards, making it one of the most secure and compliant cloud platforms globally.
Why is This Happening?
Salesforce’s choice to discontinue Salesforce Functions has left many wondering about the reasons behind this decision, as the company has not publicly revealed specific details. However, several plausible explanations can be considered.
One potential rationale could be a strategic shift towards prioritizing core products and services, such as CRM and marketing automation, enabling Salesforce to allocate its resources more efficiently. Another possibility is a focus on simplification, with the retirement of a relatively recent product like Salesforce Functions aiming to streamline their overall product lineup.
Moreover, if the adoption of Salesforce Functions did not meet expectations, cost control might be a significant motivating factor. Although the exact cause remains undisclosed, these considerations provide some insights into the decision-making process.
Important Dates
If you’re utilizing these services, staying informed about crucial dates is essential. Here are important milestones to keep in mind (subject to potential changes):
October 31, 2023: The final day for customers to acquire new subscriptions for Elastic Services.
January 31, 2024: The last opportunity for customers to renew their current Elastic Services subscriptions.
January 31, 2025: The concluding day when Elastic Services will be accessible in Salesforce orgs.
Migrating to Heroku Apps
As the end-of-life for Salesforce Functions approaches in over a year, it’s prudent to begin considering the migration process, with one viable option being the transition to Heroku Apps. However, it’s essential to be aware of key distinctions between the two platforms:
1. Trust Boundary: Salesforce Functions have security managed by Salesforce, while Heroku Apps expose internet boundaries, with access control achievable through Private Spaces.
2. Scale: Salesforce Functions can scale automatically, while Heroku Apps require manual configuration for static scaling. Autoscaling is available for specific Heroku dynos and those in Private Spaces, with additional options through Heroku Add-ons.
3. Invocation Time: Salesforce Functions have a fixed invocation time limit, whereas Heroku Apps can run for extended periods.
4. API Limits: Salesforce Functions have dedicated API allocations and limits, whereas Heroku Apps adhere to standard Salesforce API limits for license-based users. Data syncing between Salesforce and Heroku Postgres via Heroku Connect doesn’t count towards Salesforce API limits.
5. Identity: Salesforce Functions are invoked as Cloud Integration or Platform Integration Users, while Heroku Apps enable more specific access control as they are invoked as designated Salesforce users.
6. Management: Heroku Apps can be managed through Heroku Dashboards, providing a user-friendly interface for configuration, metrics tracking, and billing information.
7. Developer Experience: Heroku Apps can be configured and deployed using the Heroku CLI, offering broader language support, and Heroku Pipelines facilitate CI/CD.
8. Add-Ons: Heroku Apps boasts a wide array of available Heroku Add-ons, providing diverse tools and services for app development, extension, and operation.
For those considering migration to Heroku Apps, an example migration repository is available as a guide. This repository includes example code and Apex classes to call functions and substitute the Elastic Services API within your Salesforce organization.
Summary
The announcement of Salesforce’s decision to retire Salesforce Functions has generated significant discussion within the Developer Community, especially considering its relatively short period of general availability. Despite the reasons behind this decision, there is a considerable timeframe until the retirement takes effect, and Salesforce is committed to offering tools to facilitate the migration process. With alternative options like Heroku Apps and AWS Lambda available for migration, careful planning can help minimize disruptions during the transition.
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