Salesforce Data Cloud: pay to duplicate the data you already have
Salesforce Data Cloud feels like the ole okie doke. Isn't Salesforce... my data in the cloud already? They're basically admitting that their legacy architecture can't handle big data or AI features, so the solution is to make you duplicate all your data and pay for the privilege.
Many use cases for AgentForce, like any flow that requires RAG to pull from knowledge bases or data from an external system, require Data Cloud. Which means additional data storage and processing costs, even for data that's available in Salesforce. And despite the all-encompassing sounding name, it's another Salesforce product built around a rigid use-case, identity management, that isn't relevant to everyone, certainly not for the price tag.
I would not blame (prospective) customers for asking themselves if it's time to consider a modern CRM that supports agentic workflows without requiring data duplication. And my instinct to focus on agentic solutions outside of Salesforce keeps being reinforced.
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Fun fact: When I searched for "okie doke" images, most results were confusing it with "okie dokie", and there's an irony there.
Jessie Grenfell
Jessie has spent 20+ years architecting and delivering software for organizations where complexity is the norm — financial services, insurance, nonprofits, and regulated industries where getting it wrong isn't an option. She specializes in the hard problems: unique operational workflows, cross-system integrations, and the kind of compliance requirements (HIPAA, CCPA, SOC 2) that most developers treat as someone else's job.
At Codality, she leads every principal engagement from discovery through delivery — because she's seen what happens when that thread gets cut.