'The Hindu', India's National Newspaper interviewed Sridhar, our CEO. From the interview:
It's the classic David versus Goliath battle being played out in the 21st century. And it's no surprise that this battle is being fought on the Web. We are talking of the great race between Web behemoth Google and Zoho, the Chennai-based underdog, to launch a suite of online office apps.
However, Sridhar Vembu, CEO of AdventNet, the company behind Zoho services, doesn't see it as an all-out battle. "That would imply that there can be only one winner, which I don't agree with. Business is not like sports in that respect. It is perfectly possible to have a profitable, growing business without 'winning' the market in the sense of being number one"
Zoho is part of a new wind blowing across the tech landscape - it's called software-as-a-service (SaaS). "I believe Web services represent the future of software. There are huge productivity benefits to individuals and businesses in SaaS, which is why it will take off."
Won't companies and individuals be worried about privacy and safety issues when it comes to allowing all their sensitive data to be in the hands of a third party provider? "On the contrary, there is nothing more unsafe than critical corporate data being stored in laptops. While there is no such thing as perfect safety, your data is much safer in a professionally managed datacenter than in a relatively poorly managed end-user PC or laptop."
Does the engineer in him cheer the "less is more" philosophy being practiced by startups that believe software should not do too much? "Everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler. For 50 years, all you could do with a phone is to make a call, but now people expect a digital camera, music player and more in their phones."
"The designer faces the challenging task of integrating all these features in one device, of balancing the need for features against the need to keep the product simple. It is a question of striking the right balance, and that balance itself keeps evolving over time, as customer needs and fashions change."
Read the whole interview. Thanks to Murali, Ramesh & 'The Hindu'!
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