Sharing a SQL Server between two locations -- best solution?

klkitchens

10/6/23, 9:06 PM

We're looking at opening a second facility which will have its own internal network for workstations and file sharing, but will need to access our central database server. Existing capacity on our database server is not in question, it's plenty as we're a small business (most of the users at the new location will be users from the old location, very little increased load). This is solely about connectivity solutions.

Which strategy is recommended for this?

Cloud machine or Virtual Server hosting our data.
Co-located physical box to a shared provider somewhere.
Keep machine at one facility (as it is now) and use a VPN to connect the other location's network to to ours for data queries.
Something else?
None of the above.
One of the above.

I checked AWS and Azure related to option #1 and it's quite overwhelming in terms of options (and costs).

Any advice along these lines as we prepare for this next step of growth would be most helpful.

TIA!

1 + 3

cloud-computing

virtual-machines

sql-server

TomTom

10/6/23, 10:07 PM

Not on topic - that is essentially a form of capacity planning. We can not make this decision for you as there are a TON of things to consider - from database size to uptime and backup requirements to ping times and impact on applications.

klkitchens

10/6/23, 10:12 PM

Thanks @TomTom, but this is not about capacity planning. Existing capacity is fine. It's solely about connectivity solutions.

joeqwerty

10/6/23, 10:43 PM

This may not be about capacity planning but it is about making a recommendation as to what suits your needs, which are unique to your business. Which makes this unanswerable. Your first three options are all viable. Which would we recommend? The one that suits your needs in terms of connectivity, availability, scalability, reliability, security, cost, and whatever other factors you need to consider. Consider the factors I've mentioned and weight them against each solution. Pick the one that comes closest to meeting the majority of your needs.

Score:0

Server

drookie

10/7/23, 5:45 AM

3 seems the best and the most obvious option.

+ 2

drookie

10/7/23, 2:11 PM

The thing is, it does.

klkitchens

10/8/23, 6:02 AM

Thanks @drookie for at least attempting to answer the question. The downside of the StackExchange system nowadays is that every question asked is pounced upon by people trying to justify their opinion that the question is not valid. When it fact it is valid or the user would not ask it. I debated for weeks asking this here for fear of what exactly did happen. Folks misdirecting to a completely unrelated question. A shame really as these sites could be really helpful if they wanted to be.

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