Does anyone know of any software designed to make it easy to create an in-the-cloud application manager?
I figure I want something that I point at a database, define field names, validation and ACLs, then put those fields on widgets and the widgets on tabs and the tabs on pages and it will all just work.
Surely there's something out there? Unfortunately I'm stuck at the start: I don't even know what to put into Google .. and even Stack Overflow is telling me my title sucks :-(
Do you know what a web service is? I think you might just mean a web application. And you don't mean management (pretty much a completely useless term; it's used everywhere for everything) you mean you want a drag-and-drop web interface creation/maintenance tool.
That might help to get your terminology right, if I'm right in my guesses about what you want. If you're confused about those terms then that implies a certain level of understanding. You may need to know more about computing and modern web technologies before you progress.
But happy Googling :)