Path to understanding virtual server company offerings?

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I have a single 32-bit, self-contained database application that I am interested in hosting on a server, either via the remote desktop and/or published application capabilities built into Server 2008 or 2012 or with a product like ThinStuff XP/VS. Although this has been done in-house by some of my clients already, my interest is in seeing what is possible for other clients using virtual server services such as those offered by Amazon or Nuvolat. I’m assuming that I would probably need to have each client on a separate virtual server, but that isn’t necessarily required by my software as long as the databases can be kept separate.

My problem is that there is so much jargon and shorthand involved that I cannot get a grasp on what is actually needed. Does anyone know of a good source for building a basic understanding of how this works and what specific elements of a company’s offering are needed to host a single application? Thanks for any input.

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WSL has an amazing amount of knowledge behind it but I’m not sure database hosting is one of its strengths. I can’t help but think that this question would be better asked (and hopefully answered) in a more dedicated companion forum like Web Hosting Talk, perhaps in Dedicated Server after checking out the ‘hosting’ tutorials.

Hope this helps…

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We can do database hosting no problems! 🙂

The main issue with providing remote services is ensuring security of the server/data. Doing it in-house makes this easy, doing it over the web doesn’t.
What is the database format?
What DB client do you use?
How do your clients access the database?
How is it backed up / secured?
What sort of control do you need over the database? How do you administer it?

cheers, Paul

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It’s a Visual Foxpro application that uses the internal VFP database. My clients set it up as a published application on the server, so the security is handled by the group rights that allow their users to access the app and the specific folders for which it needs rights (all via either their own WAN or via a VPN). So it is completely self-contained, running entirely on the server as opposed to a true client/server type of application. There is some transfer of image files that are referenced by the database and of course, reporting.

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I would check with a company called Rackspace. Although I haven’t dealt with them for database services, in the past they hosted one of my customer’s email. I was very pleased all-around with Rackspace.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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You should check out Azure also.

Joe

--Joe

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