Salesforce.com has launched Database.com, the world’s first enterprise database built for the cloud. Database.com is built from the ground up to power new enterprise applications that are cloud, mobile and social. Database.com is open for use with any language, platform and device.

It enables developers to focus on building great applications instead of tuning, maintaining and scaling databases. Database.com leverages the proven infrastructure and technology trusted by more than 87,000 salesforce.com customers over 11 years – now designed and made available as a standalone cloud database.

“We see cloud databases as a massive market opportunity that will power the shift to enterprise applications that are natively cloud, mobile and social,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. “For the first time, we are making Database.com, the database that is proven and trusted by our 87,000 customers, available as an open, stand-alone service to accelerate the creation of these new apps.”

 Database.com is currently scheduled to be generally available as a standalone service in 2011.