"You have to wonder why this is happening," said analyst David Dobrin at consultancy B2B Analysts Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. "Is it an artifact of their changeover to a more robust, dual-data-center model? Is it a size problem? Are they having the same problems with their hardware/software vendors that other people frequently have?"

He noted that Salesforce.com's constituency is made up of customers that don't want to have to trouble themselves with information technology. These customers, therefore, will be more aggravated by downtime and more willing to express their dissatisfaction than those who rely on internal IT resources, Dobrin said.