ANTenna Blog -- Services

Zoho today rolled out CloudSQL, new middleware software that lets developers use standard SQL queries to access data in Zoho's cloud-based applications. It could blaze a path to easier integration of cloud applications.

Right now, CloudSQL is available only for the Zoho Reports application, but the company plans to roll it out across its line of online, on-demand applications.

As explained in a Zoho blog post, CloudSQL is aimed at developers, not end users. But it matters to small and midsize businesses for a couple of reasons. First, SQL is a standard, widely used language that many programmers already know. And it makes it easy to extract the data stored by Zoho, without having to know exactly how Zoho stores it.

More to the point, though, CloudSQL clearly demonstrates that cloud applications can be accessed using familiar software tools, which promises to address one of the key issues facing cloud computing: integrating cloud apps from a variety of vendors with traditional software from a variety of vendors. If developers can use existing tools like SQL to get at their data, integration could become much easier. According to Rafe Needleman over at CNET, the service is free for now...

It's waaayyyy too early to declare the integration problem solved, but this is a step in the right direction.