Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Whose platforms and development tools do you use to develop Apps and Business Solutions?

A: Microsoft, the worlds largest softwear company, whose mission is To Enable People And Businesses Thoughtout The World To Realise Their Full Potential, is our Partner and principal technology provider. We love the new Windows 8 high impact 'Metro' modern interface and the new tools that Microsoft is providing that allow us to build applications of the future with a broad reach that spans traditional IT and newer connected consumer devices provided by a range of hardware manufacturers.

Q: What is Cloud Computing?

A: The Cloud is a metaphor for the Internet. It's an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure the Internet represents.

Mainframe Computing (pre 1980)

Client / Server Computing (post 1980)

Cloud based Computing (the future)

With Cloud computing Server and software are delivered as a service over the Internet. Customers don't own server hardware they only pay for the services the use. This is a utility model where a service, like electricity supply, is delivered over the Internet.

The Cloud (or Cloud 2 as it's referred to in some quarters) isn't the same as the old mainframe with a dumb terminal architecture where all the computing power is the mainframe computer room. The cloud isn't located in any one place. It's more like a global super-computer (the Internet is sometimes referred to as a 'Global Brain') that will enable access to distributed services and applications that we interact with in increasingly  natural ways. Always on, wherever we are. Connecting our devices on-demand.

The benefits include reductions in capital expenditure, reduced IT staffing, reduced office space requirements and near 100% uptime. Applications become location & device independent. Portable, scalable, secure, reliable, more easiliy maintainable applications can be hosted in the Cloud.

The Cloud is a platform developers can deploy to. It provides On-demand compute and storage services that host, scale and manage Web-Applications on the Internet.

Window Azure is a Cloud services Operating System that supports development, service hosting and management. Visual Studio 2012 is used to development. SOAP, REST, XML, PHP are supported standards and protocols in this mult-tenant environment.

Microsoft SQL Azure is a Cloud based relational database server.

Microsoft SQL Azure Data Sync provides symmetry between SQL Azure and SQL Server using bi-directional synchronisation.

Windows Azure Platform AppFabric helps developers connect apps or services in the Cloud or on premises. It provides a service bus across network and organisational boundaries and access control for federation with authorisation as a service.

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Q: What services does Z A R D O Z  provide?

A: We can help . . .

     • Specify - analysis and modelling phase

     • Build - application creation phase

     • Install - implementation phase

     • Support - maintenance phase

                                   . . . your Business application requirements.

Q: How does Z A R D O Z  provide these services?

A: Our Objectives are to . . .

     • Maintain a Low Cost Structure to minimise rates.

     • Develop Quality Applications for current and future business activities.

     • Innovate by using exciting new computer technologies.

     • Creatively improve developed systems.

     • Provide Good Documentation in support of developed systems.

     • Concentrate on Solutions to Business needs.

     • Be Objective Orientated to achieve a desired Outcome.

We provide better service at competitive rates.

Talk to us and trust us to deliver.

We build superior software that adds business value.

Q: Where does the name Z A R D O Z  come from?

A: From an abbreviation of "The WiZARD of OZ". ZARDOZ is the name of a top rated cult Sci-fi movie made over two decades ago. There is a book (cover image in the gallery) based on the original screenplay written by John Boorman in 1972 then released as a movie in 1974. It represents Boormans "strange vision of the future".

The movie describes a possible future whose spiritual genesis is a complete reversal of the Bible. Man, in the form of Brutals, is given the gun and told that the gun is good and to go forth and kill rather than multiply.

ZARDOZ is a flying God mask, which was manufactured by one of the highly evolved elite inhabitants of the Vortex and used to help control the savages who reside outside the Vortex and whose sole purpose is to grow grain to feed evolved Vortex inhabitants. Endless order and perfection have caused many of the Vortex inhabitants to become apathetic and physically lazy. Rebellion is punished by forced aging through a process whereby the supreme council merge thought patterns with a controlling crystal computer.

One of the inhabitants of the vortex, called Arthur Frane has become bored with eternal life, so he genetically engineers a superior man through selective breeding of the murderous savages. The perfect man, called Zed the Exterminator, is made aware that the name of his God had been derived from an ancient book titled "The Wizard of Oz" and because he can no longer follow ZARDOZ blindly, he and his men hatch a plan to find out where the mask flies to. He hides under a load of grain that is being transported into the Vortex and, while in flight, shoots Arthur Frane, the perpetrator of the hoax.

The large ZARDOZ mask thus becomes a sort of Trojan horse which allows Zed into the Vortex. Zed eventually penetrates and subsequently destroys the Vortex and escapes with one of its sexless female members to continue the family line based on individual freedom of choice rather than by artificial means. Thus recombining the animal and spiritual sides of mans' nature.

The movie spotlights a kind of society where nobody dreams. Where people are cocooned in a safe place and afraid of building a new future. Endless perfection has paralyzed them and their finished society is going nowhere new. Tomorrow becomes just like today and this lack of stimulation and challenge breeds the sub-group of 'apathetics'. Other members of the vortex just can't play by the rules and are considered crazy and kept in an asylum after forced aging. They are locked in an endless geriatric hell with no escape. The vortex is anti-life because it has removed one of the key elements that shape our existance and that is change. Zed introduces changes into the vortex which ultimately allows it to regenerate. The one flaw in the perfect, multifaceted crystal. That's the crack where the light gets in! The individual is important in any society and can indeed effect significant change. A society where new ideas are suppressed is doomed.