TrackVia, the Denver cloud-based database outfit, has added a cloud database application development platform that's supposed to make the cloud accessible to non-technical business users by letting them build their own business-critical database-driven applications instead of waiting around interminably for IT or some software developer to conjure something up that probably won't suit anyway.

It claims IT won't mind - and might even become corporate champions - because the scalable widgetry is secure, with reliable support and enterprise-class controls. Heck, it means less work for them and no upfront costs.

It's supposed to put a very simple user interface on top of a feature-rich relational database that can be securely accessed and shared over the web.

The four-year-old company, backed by Access Venture Partners, Flywheel Ventures and folks like Rackspace founder Lew Moorman, claims a thousand enterprise, small business and government customers around the world for its 4Nines online database, a competitor of Intuit's QuickBase.

Collectively, these customers represent more than a billion records including a bunch that belong to Honda, which stumbled on TrackVia during a desperate Google search for an "online database easy" in 2008 when the bottom fell out of the car market and it needed to keep tabs on all the millions of dollars worth of vehicles it was warehousing here, there and everywhere. Nothing else reportedly suited. Once found Honda was up and running in a couple of days.

Twenty-four groups across Honda-Acura now use the stuff according to TrackVia COO Chris Basham, who called it a testament to TrackVia's viral nature once it gets inside a company.

Other users include Brink's, ADP, Khosla Ventures, Liberty Mutual, Prudential, Shell, Subaru, Toyota, Bed Bath & Beyond, Dow, the United States Olympic Committee and US Cellular.

TrackVia revolves around an integrated "data canvas" that lets users view, analyze, manipulate and apply productivity tools to their records in real-time - without losing sight of the data they're working with. They can feed data from web forms; export data to Excel; search, filter and create customized views that include table, calendar, map and graph formats; import Word documents; display address data on a Google Map; blast out mass e-mails; create labels; time, user, and date-stamp every change; and synchronize with other third-party apps and databases.

There are no theoretical limits on the number of records or attached files, and all the data is backed up.

Aside from a 14-day free trial, subscriptions start at $99 a month for five users, 100,000 records and 1GB of storage with a basic set of features. Ten users cost $249 month for 300,000 records, 4GB of storage and workgroup features. Five hundred users run $4,999 a month for a million records, 40GB of storage and professional features like a 99.5% SLA.

TrackVia employs a multi-channel approach appealing to resellers, infrastructure cloud providers, integrators and consultants and developers and ISVs looking to SaaS-enable or annuitize their solutions.

The company uses Rackspace for its cloud, meaning to add Amazon.