ZOHO: Software as a Service

The future of Software would be in offering Software as a Web Service. This would allow Users to use Web based tools to edit, write, collect and publish online. Most of Internet Users has only seen a glimpse of this new reality via increased use of search engines, web-based social networking tools, image archives, blogs and online collaboration tools. But a lot more is coming in form of web applications offering flexibility, increased availability & affordability, less dependency, more usability and heaps of other rich features. In this Blog, I am going to discuss about the most popular web based Project from ZOHO.

Introduction

ZOHO is one of the brands from AdventNet, a software company started in 1996 focusing on building affordable software for businesses. ZOHO Services hosts wide array of online WEB based Office Productivity Suite and Collaboration Applications that runs in almost any Web Browser and can be accessed from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Zoho believes in offering Software as a service (SaaS) which would have huge productivity benefits to individuals and businesses.

Technology Used

ZOHO requires nothing but a bare browser. To accomplish this, it uses AJAX and Javascript on the front end. This means it works with any web browser. On the backend it uses MySQl and Java. The Operating System used is Linux. The infrastructure is designed such that Services are always up and data is always backed up, secured and protected.

ZOHO Application Suite

ZOHO provides a complete suite of applications, not just for documents and spreadsheets. Its office type offerings include Zoho Writer(Word Processor), Zoho Sheet (Spreadsheet), Zoho Show (Presentation), Zoho Wiki (WYSIWYG wiki), Zoho Meeting (Web Conferencing), Zoho Notebook, Zoho Creator (to Create Online Database & Web Applications).

Zoho also offers web based Business tools such as Zoho CRM (Elegant & Affordable On-Demand CRM Solution), Zoho Planner (an online organizer with todo, reminders, and notes) and Zoho Chat (a group chat tool), Zoho Mail that includes an email client, shared documents, calendars and more. It also offers Utilities like Zoho Polls (for Surveys, Rating, Polling) and Website Monitoring Service.

ZOHO Application Features

• Zoho based Applications are Cross Platform, always up-to-date, require no physical purchase, no download, no installation and no setup.
• Zoho Applications have a polished AJAX (WEB 2) interface and are faster to respond.
• Zoho Applications are born with built-in collaboration abilities and with the potential to do many things not possible on the desktop.
• Zoho Applications are easily affordable (most of them are free), available all the time from anywhere in the world with an internet connection and a browser.
  
• Zoho Application supports Document Sharing (TAG), features are easy to find and readily exposed.
• Zoho Office supports keyboard shortcuts as you would expect in an offline application.

Is ZOHO Free?
So, how much does it cost? Like Google Apps, Zoho offers FREE Versions of its most of the web based services but hopes to tempt Business Users and Volume Buyers with subscription plans that sharply undercut Microsoft.

Conclusion

Despite of competitive services from Google Docs, Thinkfree and other players, ZOHO continues to dominate the web based application market. ZOHO has experience of five years in developing web based applications. With their expertise in this area, they are not only developing useful web-based services but continues to improve on what they already offer.

So What are you waiting for? Just visit zoho.com and establish a sign-in name and a password. Zoho recently allowed users to sign on to the Suite's various services with a single ID.

Free Anti Virus Software

Earlier, there were Viruses but Now a days there are plethora of malicious programs like Trojan Horses, Worms, Spywares, Adwares, Root kits etc that can infect your computer and compromise Confidentiality, integrity and availability of sensitive information and data on your machine. If you are on an "always-on" Internet connection, You need to have a Security Software that offers REAL TIME PROTECTION. If you want complete protection against Malware, You need at least the following type of Software Applications.

1. Anti-Virus - To protect against Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses.
2. Anti-Spyware - To protect against Spywares, adwares, malicious scripts, unwanted pop ups etc.
3. Firewall - To protect against Network based Attacks (DoS, DDoS), unauthorized Access, restrict Access etc.

I will discuss about the Anti-Virus Softwares for Home Users & Non Commercial Use focusing on the ones which are available for FREE. The following are the important features you must look at an Anti Virus software (whether free or commercial).

• Real Time Protection - AV Software should Always be ON and monitor the system in real time for suspicious activity.
• On Demand Scanner - User should be able to Scan for inactive viruses and malicious programs whenever required.
• Auto Updates - AV Software should be able to download Automatic Updates of Virus Definitions on a frequent basis.
• Heuristics - AV Software should be able to detect and quarantine previously unknown viruses.
• Detection Rate - AV Software should be able to detect almost all known threats with a fast speed.
• Additional features if available like Email Protection, P2P & IM Protection, Scheduler, Reporting/Logs etc.
  

There are lot of commercial AV Softwares that includes all of the above features and much more. But if you are looking for a FREE AV Software for Windows Operating System, then I have compiled a List of the Top Free AV Softwares.

A free Anti-Virus Software by AOL (No, You don't need to Subscribe to AOL), powered by “Kaspersky Antivirus” which is the best AntiVirus on the market and offers excellent detection rates and update frequency that can be expected from Kaspersky. Features includes:

• Real time protection from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spywares, adwares and other potentially dangerous malware
• Email Protection for all E-mail Clients
• On Demand Scanner File/Mail Scanner
• Scheduler, Automatic Hourly Updates
• Variable Scan Speed and hence very little impact on your System Performance
• Easy to Install and Friendly User Interface
• Laptop power saving and HT technology support & Support for 64 bit Windows.
  

Click here to go to Active Virus Shield website.

Grisoft has been offering AVG Free Anti-Virus Solutions to home and non-commercial use for a long time. The Software is very configurable and includes the following features:

• Real Time Protection & E-mail real time protection
• On Demand Scanner & Heuristic Scanning
  
• Auto Updater for both Virus Definitions and Program
• Rescue Disk, Very Configurable easy to Use GUI
• Virus Vault for Quarantined Files, Multilingual support
  

There is No Support, downloads are bit slow and you have to manually move the Quarantined and Infected files to Virus Vault. The Software doesn't scan for spyware and adware. In fact, the have a separate product called AVG Anti-Spyware Free for that purpose.

Click here to go to AVG's Website

Avast! 4 Home Edition is a very feature rich Anti Virus package FREE for home users and non commercial use. The software feature includes

• Real time Resident Protection for Operating System, File System and E-Mail Clients
• Automatic Updates, P2P and Instant Messaging (IM) Shields
• Network Shield that analyzes Network Traffic for Malicious content
• Web Shield that analyzes HTTP Traffic for malicious content
• Heuristic Analysis, Integration with Windows Explorer, Simple Skin based User Interface
  
• Virus Chest for Quarantined files, Boot Time Scanner
  
• Support for 64 Bit Windows, Multiple Language Support.

The Software requires Registration.
Click here to go the website of Avast! 4 Home Edition.

Avira offers FREE of Charge Avira AntiVir Personal Edition Classic that also comes with new root kit detection. The Software is quick to install and includes following features:

• Real time protection against viruses, worms, Trojan horses
• Protection against expensive dialers and phishing
• On Demand Scanner, Scheduler
• Automatic Updates, Heuristic Scanning
• Detects and deletes root kits
• Friendly GUI with easy to configure options

There is no Email scanner for Email Clients and support is limited. The Software doesn't scan for Spywares and Adwares. The Automatic Updates are slow for the free version.

Click here to go to Avira's Website.

ClamWin is an open source (GPL) Free Antivirus for Microsoft Windows Operating Systems. The software comes with the following features:

• Standalone virus scanner
  
• Scanning Scheduler, Automatic updates
• Integration with right click menu of Windows Explorer,
  
• Addin for scanning MS Outlook attachments.
  

ClamWin Free Antivirus does not include an On-Access Real-Time Scanner. You would need to manually scan a file in order to detect a virus or spyware. Also, it doesn't scan for Spywares and Adwares.

Click here to go to Clamwin's website.

Setup your own WikiPedia

Recently, I installed MediaWiki software. MediaWiki is one of the best, free and easy to use wiki software package which was originally written for wikipedia . The popularity of wikipedia has helped MediaWiki to evolve and has also built a large population of competent users of the technology. You can download mediawiki software from here

Requirements for installing Mediawiki
1. Web Server such as Apache or IIS
2. PHP Version 5.0 or later
3. MySQL or PostgreSQL 8.1 or later

If you don't have a webserver, php and mysql database installed on your machine, or if you don't want to hassle yourself installing and configuring them separately, what you can do is install LAMP (Linux) or WAMP (Windows). Once you have installed LAMP/WAMP, the only thing you would have to do is simply follow the installation steps here.

But if you are too lazy to install LAMP/WAMP or if you simply want to test it first, what you can do is download the VMware Virtual Appliance. You would either need a VMWare Player or VMWare Server to run these appliance. The following Virtual Appliances are available for MediaWiki.

MediaWiki Wiki JumpBox
rPath MediaWiki Appliance

Once you have running instance of MediaWiki, the next step is to do some post installation configuration and may be read more about how it works.
For Post Installation Configuration, Click here
For User Guide, Click here
For Tips & Tricks, Click here

Other Wikis
There are many wikis available online and to choose one that suits your personal needs could be a tedious task. You can visit Wiki Matrix WebSite to get a comprehensive list of wikis available and then compare to find the one that best fits your needs.

On last thought I would say that WikiPedia has revolutionized web based document collaboration allowing multiple people to collaboratively create and edit information. So, what are you waiting for.... start building your own personal encyclopedia.