Salesforce.com is a cloud computing company but when it comes to work, San Francisco is its home.
CEO Marc Benioff is a native of San Francisco. He has donated $100 million to the University of San Francisco Children’s Hospital. Now, the company he founded says it is building a 14-acre campus that over 10 years time will have more than 2 million square feet of building space in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Salesforce already occupies more than a half million square feet in an assortment of buildings downtown and South of Market, centered at The Landmark @ One Market. That makes it the largest technology company in the city by square footage, followed closely by Lucasfilm Ltd. and Dolby Laboratories Inc.
It’s an achievement for a SaaS provider to have the clout to build its own campus. Web giants such as Google have corporate campuses. But for the most part, it is the software giants with the might to build headquarters on large properties.
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The Microsoft campus is 388-acres with more than 30 million square feet in building space. It is located in Redmond. Wa. The Oracle corporate campus is on about 66-acres in Redwood Shores on the San Francisco peninsula. Google is on 46-acres with four core buildings that total about 500,00 square feet. It is located in Mountain View, Ca.
Each campus is distinct. Google’s headquarters is designed to fit with surrounding open space. Microsoft is a Pacific Northwest classic that feels like a sprawling college campus with tall Douglas Firs. Oracle’s campus looks futuristic.
Saleforce.com campus may be smaller in comparison to other technology giants but the news says more about the growth of cloud computing. More cloud computing companies will have campuses over time, especially as subscription services become the standard way of delivering software.
