Salesforce Connect is a powerful tool that enables organizations to access external data in real time within Salesforce. But there’s a catch: Each external data source requires its own license. With pricing starting at $48,000 per year per source, these costs can escalate quickly for businesses needing to connect multiple systems.
What if you could serve all your external data sources through just one licensed API connection, turning Salesforce into a source-of-truth system?
The challenge: Rising costs and complexity in Salesforce data integration
Organizations increasingly rely on multiple databases, warehouses, and cloud services to store operational data. When integrating that data with Salesforce via Salesforce Connect, each source—say, a cloud-hosted SQL Server, an on-prem Oracle instance, and a SaaS CRM—requires a separate external object connection.
At $48,000 per source annually, integrating three systems balloons into $144,000 or more in licensing costs alone. Beyond cost, maintaining separate integration pipelines for each system adds technical complexity, increasing the burden on IT teams and creating more failure points.
The solution: CData API Server as a unified OData gateway
CData API Server simplifies external data integration by enabling organizations to build a real-time OData API from any database or data warehouse. It consolidates multiple systems into a single API endpoint that Salesforce Connect sees as one source.
How it works:
- Connect your internal systems—SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and more—to CData API Server.
- Configure your unified OData API and select the tables and views you want to expose.
- Point Salesforce Connect to that single OData endpoint.
- Instantly access real-time data from multiple systems in Salesforce—and pay for just one license.
The result? A streamlined architecture that delivers all your data to Salesforce with just one Salesforce Connect license.
Real-world impact: Save up to six figures while simplifying integration
Let’s break down potential savings. A mid-size company integrating four external sources without API Server would need four Salesforce Connect licenses—totaling $192,000/year. Using CData API Server, the same company can reduce this to one license—$48,000/year—while accessing the same data.
Estimated annual savings: $144,000
And the benefits don’t stop at cost:
- Centralized management: One API means one place to configure access and permissions.
- Faster scaling: Add new sources to the API without reconfiguring Salesforce.
- Reduced maintenance: No need for separate OData adapters or custom integrations per system.
Why CData API Server beats custom integrations
Many organizations attempt to build their own integration layers or use ad hoc solutions to avoid multiple licenses. But this can introduce:
- Security risks from poorly maintained APIs
- Performance bottlenecks from inefficient queries
- Longer dev cycles to maintain integrations across versions
CData API Server handles all of that out of the box, with enterprise-grade security, built-in support for more than 100 data sources, and real-time performance optimized for business use cases.
Get started: Build your tailored Salesforce API today
If you’re struggling with Salesforce integration costs or complexity, it’s time to consider a smarter, simpler approach. CData API Server empowers your team to build powerful, consolidated APIs without writing custom code or managing multiple connectors.
Start your free trial today and see how easy it is to:
- Build a single OData API across all your systems
- Connect that API to Salesforce Connect
- Reduce your license count and cost
- Simplify your architecture for long-term scalability
Experience CData API Server
See how CData API Server can help you quickly build and deploy enterprise-grade, fully documented APIs from any data source.
