How to share an Access database online over the Internet

How do you share a Microsoft Access database online using the Cloud to create an online Access database?

You’ve developed a Microsoft Access Database to help run your business or charity but as your organisation grows you want to share it with colleagues or employees. You may also want to share it with colleagues at other branches or with remote workers or volunteers, maybe you need to run it from home, or from a customer’s office.   Hold on! It’s starting to sound complicated, and complicated is expensive, right?

Not necessarily.   There are several ways you can share your Access database online applications, and the right method for you will depend on your individual circumstances and needs.   There are many articles about this on the Web, so no need to repeat them here.   This article discusses how you can share Access database online for the lowest cost.   It means you can have your own online Access database without having to make any code changes to your application.

Is there an Access Database Cloud version?

While there isn’t an Access database cloud version it is easy to host an Access database on cloud based Windows remote desktops. You can then run Access databases in the Cloud and access from anywhere on any device.

Licenses to share Access databases online

First off a quick mention about licences. Microsoft license Access as part of Office Professional or you can get it as a standalone product; and you could provide it to all your users for them to run Access – getting expensive again!   However, Microsoft also provides a FREE Runtime version of Access, meaning no licences required for most of your users.

To use Runtime you need to split your database, reorganising it into two files.   At the backend you have the database tables and at the front end all the other objects such as forms, reports, and queries.   Each user has their own copy of the Runtime front-end database all connecting to the same backend database.   Splitting the database is straightforward, see this article on how to share access database online.

How do I share a database with multiple users?

A hosted remote desktops is designed to enable multiple users to connect to the same remote desktop server and run the same database application at the same time. The database engine such as Microsoft Access handles the record locking so that changes to records are handled correctly.

With Access databases we recommend splitting the database as described above and saving the front end as a .accde file. Each user will connect to their own individual copy of this file. The .accde file then links back to a single back-end database saved as a .accdb. In theory you can have up to 256 users connected to the same back-end file. In reality the memory (RAM) limitations of Access would cause performance problems way before that. However, there are simple processes to convert an Access back-end to Microsoft SQL Express or SQL Standard to give you more power when working with a lot of users.

How the cloud comes in to play if you wish to share Access databases online

So, where do you put the database so everyone can share it?   This is where the beauty of The Cloud comes in to play.   A Cloud Hosted Desktop provider will give you your own dedicated server sat on high spec infrastructure in an ultra-secure data centre, supported, backed-up and maintained by the provider.   The database and Runtime files are installed on the server and using technology from Microsoft called Remote Desktop Services all anyone needs to run your shared Access database is an Internet connection on their device, and it can be almost any device, Windows, Mac, iPad or Android.

Each user has an icon on their desktop for the online Access database application, but the application actually runs on the hosted server.   The only thing that comes up and down the Internet are the screen refreshes, mouse clicks and keyboard presses; so many users can run the application on an average broadband connection. Did I mention they can run it from anywhere there is Internet access?

Contact us to find out more about moving your MS Access databases online

Your Office Anywhere are one of the UKs longest established Cloud hosting provider and have many customers and developers using online Access databases on our platform with prices starting from as low as £36.00 per user per month.

You can call us today on 01282 500318 for more information and we will be in touch shortly for a no obligation chat about your requirements.   Alternatively visit our Microsoft Access online page to find out more about our service.

Watch this video to see how it works:

Continued reading on how to share Access Databases Online

Here’s some other Access related pages that you may find useful:

• Splitting an Access database
• Our main Access database hosting service page
• Access Database Hosting Case Study – Manzoni Accessories – how this Australian firm was able to share Access database online within 24 hours when their onsite server went down “under”

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