The WSJ Interviews Sridhar Vembu

At The Wall Street Journal's Digits blog, Jeremy Caplan has some good questions for Sridhar. Excerpts from the interview 'Q&A: Upstart Takes on Google, Microsoft in the Cloud':

Both Google and Microsoft have committed significant resources to building Web-based software. How can you compete?

The primary advantage Google and Microsoft have is their size and reach, which is a formidable advantage. Google’s product suite is limited to Mail & Office suite, while Zoho has a much broader product suite

targeted at small and mid-sized businesses. We integrate well with everyone, including with Google Apps.

Microsoft has formidable technology resources, but faces the economic challenge of transitioning their business model to the cloud, without sacrificing revenue in the process. In the small and mid-sized market,

there is room for multiple players, as companies like Intuit and Adobe have demonstrated even as they have faced repeated challenges from Microsoft.

How will cloud software differ three years from now?

Over the next three years, you will see cloud offerings really mature in terms of features and functions, and become feature rich, overtaking desktop offerings in many areas. As feature parity is reached, market adoption will explode. Just as mobile phones overtook wired phones in terms of features, functions and of course usage over the past 10 years, cloud software will overtake installed software over the next 10. The reason in both cases is the sheer speed of technology evolution.

Thanks to Jeremy and The WSJ.