Microsoft Remote Access App

01-05-2021

Microsoft Remote Access App

Since Microsoft introduced Terminal Services with Windows Server 2008, it is possible to host multiuser Microsoft Access applications (and other programs) without installing anything on the user's machines. Your users can run the programs from within your corporate network, or even across the Internet when hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud. As a result, PC and Mac users can run your Access solution.

Ensure high availability for remote access to apps. Many companies are dealing with unprecedented levels of remote traffic and it is important to have high availability to remote access connection points. App Proxy connectors minimize the overhead in planning for high availability by taking care of all the high-availability tasks. Microsoft's app lets you access any Windows version going back to Windows 7, except for 'Starter' and 'Home' versions, for which you'll need a third-party app. Apple offers its $79.99 Apple Remote. Chrome Remote Desktop is a free remote access program that’s available on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android devices. It's extremely limited when compared to some of the paid options on this.

We can help you evaluate the options and tradeoffs, and implement a migration path to ensure a smooth transition to a remote hosted platform.

FMS President Luke Chung is one of the world leading experts on hosting Microsoft Access solutions on remote servers. Leveraging his extensive knowledge of Access application development, he has extensively researched how to configure, license, secure, deploy and maintain such solutions over time.

He has given talks on this subject at several conferences in the US and Europe, and ensures our team delivers such solutions on your internal network and Azure cloud. During the 2020 Virtual Access DevCon, he gave a presentation on RemoteApp and Microsoft Access Database Applications, which is available for everyone to watch!

Let us help you increase the value of your investment in Access applications.

You can provide your users a Remote Desktop or Remote App experience.

Remote Desktop lets your users connect to the server and launch a Windows desktop environment. They can run File Explorer, and any other programs they have permission to run as if they had their own PC.
Remote App lets you only run your Access application without the rest of Windows. It appears as if Access is running on their local desktop. Your database appears in a Window but it's actually running on the remote server.

Either configuration makes it easy to support and deploy Microsoft Access solutions to your users since you can install and control the Access version they run, dependencies and your Access application all in one place.

Hosting On-Premise or Internet Cloud with Microsoft Azure

Your Microsoft Access application can be hosted on a server on your internal network or on a virtual machine on the Microsoft Access cloud.

There are advantages and disadvantages of both platforms that need to be considered based on the locations, and security requirements of your users and organization.

Making Sure Your Access Application is Ready to Run Remotely

We can help you design and prepare your application to support a multi-user environment on a remote server. This includes making sure your Access application is a multi-user compatible, split-database architecture that is configured to deploy the front-end to each user's profile folder with the proper permissions.

With our Total Access Analyzer product, internal tools and knowledge of Access application Best Practices, we can asses your application and address any issues that may block a successful deployment.

We can also implement enhancements that make your Access application look and run more professionally.

We can help you configure your server or create a new virtual machine on the Microsoft Azure cloud to host your Access application(s). Issues to consider:

Windows Server licenses
Remote Desktop user licenses (CALs)
Installation of the free Access runtime or Office 365 subscriptions
Options for handling users running multiple Access applications and launching them at the same time
Security settings for authorized connections based on users and IP addresses

Once the server is properly configured, we can create a remote desktop or remote app link for your users to launch your Access application.

Once you are hosting your MS Access application in a remote environment, you become responsible for system administration to maintain it over time.

We can help you implement in your Access application, comprehensive error handling with logging so problems can be tracked and addressed based on priority.
Migrate your backend database from an Access database to SQL Server, including SQL Azure.
Monitoring performance and security.
With our Total Access Startup product, we make it easy to deploy new updates to each user every time they log in.
With our Total Visual Agent product, we can ensure your backend Access database is properly backed up and compacted on a regular schedule.

We can help you on a project basis, so that our engagement ends upon deployment, or we can host, monitor, and enhance your applications over time through a service level agreement.

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