Software-as-a-service company Zoho announced Dec. 2 it is releasing CloudSQL,
a Structured Query Language middleware-based service that allows cloud
applications to access Zoho Reports, its online reporting and business
intelligence service. Although the service is linked to Zoho Reports, the
software maker said it plans to expand CloudSQL to other Zoho services in the
future, including Zoho CRM and Web
application platform Creator.
"Zoho CloudSQL is a middleware technology that allows customers to
interact with their business data stored in Zoho through the familiar SQL
language," Zoho Director of Marketing Rodrigo Vaca wrote in a blog post Dec.
2. "Customers are able to access Zoho cloud data using SQL on both other
cloud applications as well as through traditional on-premises software."
CloudSQL is the latest offering to hold potential benefits for small and midsize
businesses. Zoho, a division of AdventNet, is offering CloudSQL at no cost for
the time being. Zoho said CloudSQL will also support SQL variants like MySQL,
Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle, and will support others down the road.
"At a high level, Zoho CloudSQL serves as the bridge between the external
application and the data stored inside Zoho," Vaca said. "It receives
the query in SQL, interprets it, delegates queries and aggregates results
across the Zoho services."
Cloud computing offers SMBs access to enterprise-level functionality at a
fraction of the cost. Hewlett-Packard subsidiary EDS, a
technology services provider, in 2007 predicted that SMBs would increasingly
turn to cloud computing to lower costs and increase their level of service
capability.
Cloud computing is particularly attractive to SMBs because it allows them to reduce
up-front investment in technology infrastructure and use Web-hosted services as
they would electricity or water—paying only for what they use. But John Sloan,
a senior research analyst at Info-Tech Research Group who likened the cloud
computing market to a "gold rush," said SMBs need to understand some
of the unresolved issues around cloud computing.
"The attraction of cloud computing options right now is very similar to
the attraction [of] distributed processing. It offers opportunities to do
things with a far lower threshold of investment than what was traditionally
thought possible," Sloan said. "In the same way the SMBs led
distributed processing in the '90s, I think that the opportunity is there for a
company like Zoho to show the benefit of lowering that threshold."
The challenge, he said, is that companies like Zoho have to address the risks
of data availability, portability and security. "What you're often
promising is best effort," he said. "Smaller businesses may be
willing to gamble on best effort. Still, you have to address those risks."
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