Zoho shakes the SaaS world with CloudSQL

Zoho is the sponsor of this blog but this is an independent analysis done
by me based on the same information Zoho shared with other bloggers.

Zoho today announced the availability of CloudSQL, a middleware that allows Zoho customers to access their data on Zoho SaaS
applications using SQL queries. This sits between the Zoho apps and external
applications, receiving SQL queries, interpreting it, delegating the queries and
aggregating the results from various Zoho services. Some of the features of
CloudSQL are

Supports all standard SQL dialects like MySQL, PostrgeSQL, MSSQL, IBM DB2,
etc.
Map entities with Zoho services to construct SQL queries
SQL queries can be submitted using HTTP POST request to the Web API for the
supported Zoho service
Support for JDBC and ODBC drivers. Makes it easy to interact with Zoho
CloudSQL without learning about a specific web API

You can learn more about CloudSQL in this wiki and also checkout a sample app created on Google App
Engine. This app uses the data available in Zoho DB and Reports, one of the Zoho
services currently available with CloudSQL.

This is pretty exciting news on many fronts. I have been emphasizing on
dataportability as an important ingredient for SaaS success. With the release of
CloudSQL to access data stored in Zoho apps, they are opening up new vistas for
Zoho users to backup their data. Pretty soon, we will be seeing apps that solves
this problem using CloudSQL. Enterprises could find it easy to integrate data on
Zoho apps with their “private clouds”. This will help in faster SaaS adaption in
the enterprise segment. I have talked about
a cloud strategy that includes diversification of SaaS vendors. If SaaS vendors
make their data available through SQL, like Zoho has done using CloudSQL, it is
possible to achieve tighter integration between various SaaS vendors. Such an
integration will help users develop a Cloud Strategy which also includes
diversification. There are several interesting possibilities that could open up
as an ecosystem develops around CloudSQL.

I spoke to Raju Vegesna, Evangelist at Zoho, about the possibility of various
vendors using CloudSQL to “open up” the data in their services. He said it is a
realistic possibility and expects it to happen in the future. I also asked him
if CloudSQL will evolve into a SimpleDB kind of service supporting non
relational databases. He said it is not part of the current roadmap and pointed
out that it could change in the future. He also informed me that the support for
complex queries like join, etc. will be added in the future.

This offers some interesting possibilities in the SaaS world. This not only
opens up the data on Zoho’s services, it also makes it easy to integrate various
SaaS application from different vendors. This will definitely tempt enterprise
customers to take a serious look at SaaS.