[AccessD] Access development in the cloud

[Paul Wolstenholme]

Regarding cost effectiveness...
A development environment for one customer's system would be used only for
a portion of my working week.  It seems plausible that that is the only
time a virtual machine assigned to that task would need to be active.
Amazon Web Services charge for virtual machines by the minute, but only
while they are running.  If you multiply their 24/7 rate for a VM by a duty
cycle of 10% to15% it doesn't look as bad.  I don't know about other
providers.

Perhaps I'm old-school.  I shut my computers down at the end of the day
unless there is a good reason not to.

Paul Wolstenholme


On Fri, 7 Jun 2024 at 03:10, Jim Dettman via AccessD <
accessd at databaseadvisors.com> wrote:

> << I guess you need a Remote Desktop running on a terminal server.>>
>
>  Or a server along with using Windows 365 (aka a PC in the cloud).
>
> Personally, I prefer RDP, but at some point, Microsoft is not going to
> allow
> O365 on a server OS.   They actually said that would be with the next
> version of Windows Server, but then back tracked, so RDP is still a viable
> option.
>
> Jim.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: AccessD On Behalf Of Gustav Brock via AccessD
> Sent: Thursday, June 6, 2024 1:59 AM
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
> <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
> Cc: Gustav Brock <gustav at cactus.dk>
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] Access development in the cloud
>
> Hi Paul
>
> I guess you need a Remote Desktop running on a terminal server.
> Those are available from many sources, like Azure, but every time I have
> looked into it, cost-effective is the last word that pops up, as the cheap
> instances to rent are way to slow to work with.
>
> Couldn't your subcontractor have a machine running like yours?
> Then you could simply push and pull the source (the complete frontend
> database) from a common source. For example, GitHub lets you host a few
> private repositories for free where you could store the frontend database
> and other relevant stuff for you and the subcontractor to share.
>
> /gustav
>
> -----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
> Fra: AccessD <accessd-bounces+gustav=cactus.dk at databaseadvisors.com> På
> vegne af Paul Wolstenholme
> Sendt: 6. juni 2024 04:27
> Til: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
> <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
> Emne: [AccessD] Access development in the cloud
>
> Hi,
>
> Has anyone tried doing Access development in the cloud?  I'm looking for a
> cost-effective cloud solution that at least 2 people could log into
> remotely
> (although not necessarily at the same time and not necessarily with unique
> login credentials).
> There are a number of providers with a bewildering array of options and
> non-obvious pricing.  Microsoft's Windows App, Google cloud and Amazon Web
> Services all have servers that are not too distant (from New Zealand) so
> I'm
> assuming lag will not be an issue.  There may be others by ploughing
> through
> the options is daunting!
>
> It is getting to the time when I must upgrade my Access with SQL Server
> Express development environment.  The hardware platform and Access licence
> are both old and in need of renewal (but SQL Server Express is free).
> Furthemore I'm sharing that development machine with a sub-contractor who
> is
> learning to take over the support of my customer.  It is working fine now
> but if I'm away then a hardware problem would be hard to deal with.  We
> need
> a development system that is separate from the customer's live system (and
> security concerns limit how we can access the live system anyway).
>
> I'm wondering whether a development environment in the cloud might be an
> effective way of implementing a succession plan as I train my successor and
> eventually hand over that environment.
> My full development environment also includes other software running on
> Windows that interacts with the same database.  That issue is outside the
> scope of this group but hopefully it might run in the same cloud.
>
> Any advice would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Paul Wolstenholme
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