Acidus wrote:

On Tuesday, software-as-a-service company Zoho announced CloudSQL: a new, cloud-friendly middleware layer giving cloud applications access to its SaaS reporting and database software, Zoho Reports. Though still in its early stages of development, CloudSQL will bridge the gap between software-as-a-service, cloud computing, and on-premises software by allowing cloud developers to access data on Zoho's servers through web services, and on-premises developers to access it using SQL as if it were a conventional database.

Latency?

Yes, exactly. This whole "software as a service" fad hinges on whether latency and availability of internet based resources are so good that those factors are irrelevant - that its no longer necessary to build the thing on your local network.

RE: CloudSQL?