GRAX Positions Itself For The Overlay AI Revolution

GRAX, a Salesforce ISV based in Boston, announced earlier this week the launch of its enhanced Data Lakehouse solution. This positions the company as a pivotal player in the emerging Overlay AI ecosystem for Salesforce customers. This move comes as enterprises increasingly seek flexible, cost-effective alternatives to embedded AI solutions offered by major vendors.

In an exclusive interview with SalesforceDevops.net, Joe Gaska, CEO of GRAX, emphasized the company’s unique approach: “We’re not just offering a backup solution. We’re providing enterprises with a comprehensive historical record of their Salesforce data, stored in their own cloud environment. This ‘time machine of digital twins’ opens unprecedented possibilities for AI and analytics, all while giving customers full control over their data.

What is GRAX?

At its core, GRAX is a data management and protection platform designed specifically for Salesforce users. The company’s primary service involves continuously replicating Salesforce data into the customer’s preferred cloud environment, whether that’s AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.

GRAX’s offering centers around two key components: the Data Lake and the Data Lakehouse. The Data Lake serves as a repository for all historical Salesforce data, capturing every version and change over time. This comprehensive data collection provides a rich foundation for analytics and AI applications.

Building on top of the Data Lake, the GRAX Data Lakehouse offers a more structured and query-optimized environment. With one-click deployment, customers can quickly set up a lakehouse that streamlines data access for various analytics tools and AI platforms. This setup allows for rapid insights generation and seamless integration with a wide range of business intelligence and machine learning solutions.

Leveraging Overlay AI

GRAX’s approach aligns closely with the growing trend of Overlay AI in enterprise software. Unlike Embedded AI, which integrates AI capabilities directly into existing platforms, Overlay AI involves deploying AI solutions on top of existing systems, treating them as interchangeable data sources.

By providing easy access to comprehensive Salesforce data in a customer-controlled cloud environment, GRAX enables enterprises to adopt a more flexible, best-of-breed approach to AI. Instead of being locked into Salesforce’s Einstein offerings, companies can leverage their preferred AI tools and platforms, applying them to their Salesforce data without the constraints of embedded solutions.

GRAX’s position in the AI Integration and Automation layer of the emerging Overlay AI stack is particularly noteworthy. By offering inexpensive production of raw data from Salesforce, GRAX allows enterprises to feed this data into various AI models and automation workflows, potentially at a fraction of the cost of embedded AI solutions that can run upwards of $30 to $100 per user per month.

Salesforce’s Embedded AI Future

As GRAX and other players in the Overlay AI space continue to gain traction, Salesforce is expected to unveil an even more elaborate embedded AI strategy soon. Industry insiders suggest that a rebranding of the Einstein 1 Platform to Agentforce may be on the horizon, signaling a deeper commitment to AI-driven automation and insights.

With this potential rebrand, Salesforce is likely to introduce additional incentives for customers to entrust their AI operations to the platform. These could include tighter integrations across the Salesforce ecosystem, enhanced security features, and possibly more competitive pricing models.

However, as enterprise architects increasingly lean towards assembling best-of-breed AI solutions, companies like GRAX are well-positioned to offer a compelling alternative. By providing flexible data management solutions that enable customers to leverage the full potential of their Salesforce data while maintaining control and optionality, GRAX and its peers in the Overlay AI space are poised to play a crucial role in shaping the future of enterprise AI.