Originally Posted by
ItsMe
I don't consider myself a web application developer but I have built apps for use in a lab environment. I have done this recently because I understand Users' desire to access real-time data. I have always avoided the issue by playing the security card. One approach I have used in the past is to see if the business rules allowed for a simple append process as a solution. For instance, a user would be on the network and grab the latest data via a snapshot. The snapshot is held in a temp tables and this allows the user to "Go Offline". The user creates new records and appends these new records to the production DB when they "Go Online".
So the first question for me is, "Do you need bidirectional synchronization?". If you do, I would suggest looking into SQL server as the back end. The user can still have an online/offline status, but SQL server can manage bidirectional synchronization using Timestamp and GUID columns. If you need bidirectional synchronization, you will likely need something other than Access as the FE. Also, you need to consider how "Real Time" the data needs to be. So you could have SQL server in the cloud to manage Point to Site connections of tablet users in the field. Then, a site to site connection to a virtual network could manage synchronization. In other words, your office would have a hybrid cloud solution where on premises hardware communicates with a virtual network via a VPN. In the virtual network a public facing endpoint would communicate with the tablets. This can get a complex as the security rules and business rules needs it to be.