Zoho beats Google, Microsoft with hosted database app

Stuart Corner
Friday, 05 October 2007 02:01

Business IT - Technology

As competition in the hosted applications market heats up between industry giants Google and Microsoft, a much smaller player, Zoho, has pipped them both to to post with the launch of a hosted database application, Zoho DB.

Available at http://db.zoho.com, Zoho DB is billed as an online database and reporting application that blends database functionalities with visual data analysis and allows users to "create, share, and collaborate on database applications and reports." A video tour is available.

Raju Vegesna, 'Zoho evangelist' said: "We spent quite a bit of time and effort making a highly functional, complex database and reporting application that's online and simple to use." He added: What excites me even further is that it brings other integration possibilities with existing Zoho apps to the table." (The lack of this functionality was one criticism voiced by early users).

Features claimed for Zoho DB include:
- Spreadsheet-like user interface for simple data manipulation and navigation;
- Support for data import/export from a variety of spreadsheet formats, including .xls, .csv, and .tsv files;
- Drag and drop-based reporting and visual analysis, with support for creating charts, pivot tables, summary views, and table views;
- Full-fledged SQL-based querying of databases for powerful and flexible reporting;
- Understanding of SQL queries/dialects from multiple databases — Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, Sybase, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Informix, and ANSI SQL;
- Databases, tables and views can be shared in read-only or read-write modes for collaborative development and analysis;
- Professional looking reports can be created and embedded into a Website with simple copy/paste of code.