Accessing database from around the world over Web

[HenryE]

Here's a nice little scenario:

Say you have users who would be accessing a SQL Server database over the web from around the world (mainly the US, Japan, and UK), and you wanted to make the access as fast as possible.

Say also you have a couple of million dollars for hardware and software.

What architectures would you build?

Thanks.

Henry

 

[jgoodman00]

If it was only going to get a few hits per day I would spend £300 on a pc & pocket the rest of the 2-million to blow on cars & houses...

James Goodman MCSE, MCDBA

http://www.angelfire.com/sports/f1pictures

 

[Corran007]

This sounds like fun.

64bit sql server for starters. active/passive fail over of course. I would go with windows 2003 datacenter, itanium processors as required for 64bit, basically as much ram and processors as you can afford and as you can pile into the system. Big fat connection.

link for sql2000 64bit requirments.

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/64bit/productinfo/sysreq.asp

windows 2003 system requirements

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/sysreqs/default.mspx

That should cover the hardware. Since ill assume you will have a big database, i would try to go with sql lightspeed for backup and recovery. Its way faster than regular sqlserver.

http://www.imceda.com/products.asp?prod=3

will proably need monotering tools. bmc, netiq and a few othres all offer these, should look at what you currently have and any exisitng relationships you have with them

Should get you started

 

[HenryE]

Ah, yes, I wish I could just buy a pc and pocket the change. Unfortunately...

The key question I have is this: Is there any way to make things faster for the countries where the database is NOT hosted? For example, if the database is hosted in the US, what is the best way to make access faster in Japan and UK for this web-linked database? I went over there and their access speeds suck. I assume this is mainly a general network issue in these offices, but is it possible to put something there that would act as speed booster servers (is there even such a thing, or am I still thinking like an RF engineer?)?

Thanks.

Henry

 

[MDXer]

If slowness seems to be related to location then you may want to look at network issue in the location where the slowness occurs. Simple pings and traceroutes would be a good place to start. If your ping times are bad or your going through dozens of hops then there really isn't much you can do on the db side to make it faster.

"Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!"
- Daffy Duck

 

[jgoodman00]

The other thing would be to setup replication to remote servers in the other countries. Given a large budget this would make sense anyway I would have thought...

James Goodman MCSE, MCDBA

http://www.angelfire.com/sports/f1pictures

 

[JRBeltman]

On the subject of replication.

What internet speed is an absolute minimum for real time replication of a database of about 1 GB?

JR
IT = Logic (except for a well known OS where it equals luck) -> Back to the Basics!