I have a client, a small business, who is thinking about switching to
all Macs but are not sure what to do with their existing Access
database. They've asked whether it's possible to publish the db on the
web so they update and view the data with a browser.

It would be nice if they could work in Access with Live Office the way
you can with Word, Excel and Power Point. But I know that's not
possible. The options I can think of at this point are:

1. Windows SharePoint Services - We could move the db to SharePoint
(converting tables to lists, etc.) if they were willing to invest in
the server and software. (I don't think they have SharePoint now.)
They're open to the idea of virtualizing a Mac OS X Server to run
Windows Server if it's just for hosting the data. They would also
consider running virtual machines on their Mac clients so they could
run Access locally.

2. Active Server Pages - This would take some development, and they'd
still need to have a Windows Server or operating system to put the
Access database on, correct?

Any options I'm missing? What would you do in this situation? Any
suggestions and thoughts would be most appreciated.

Well, Access 2010 is slated to have web publishing...

http://tinyurl.com/Access2010Demo

Note you'll need Sharepoint for that. Further note there are various
options to use Sharepoint (e.g. use a hosting provider, roll your own
server, etc)

Finally, if you have lot of complex logic and processing, it may be more
practical to use FileMaker instead for the cross platform compatibility.

I have a client, a small business, who is thinking about switching to
all Macs but are not sure what to do with their existing Access
database. They've asked whether it's possible to publish the db on the
web so they update and view the data with a browser.

It would be nice if they could work in Access with Live Office the way
you can with Word, Excel and Power Point. But I know that's not
possible. The options I can think of at this point are:

1. Windows SharePoint Services - We could move the db to SharePoint
(converting tables to lists, etc.) if they were willing to invest in
the server and software. (I don't think they have SharePoint now.)
They're open to the idea of virtualizing a Mac OS X Server to run
Windows Server if it's just for hosting the data. They would also
consider running virtual machines on their Mac clients so they could
run Access locally.

2. Active Server Pages - This would take some development, and they'd
still need to have a Windows Server or operating system to put the
Access database on, correct?

Any options I'm missing? What would you do in this situation? Any
suggestions and thoughts would be most appreciated.

Shame on me for not mentioning the 3rd option:

You could look at using Terminal Server or Citrix or a similar solution
and run all Access application via a remote session so it no longer
matter what platform you are using, and if I remember it correctly,
thee's a RDP client for mac but you will want to check it out first.

FWIW someone once wrote a DOS based RDP client. I couldn't believe that when I read
it.

Tony

You could look at using Terminal Server or Citrix or a similar
solution and run all Access application via a remote session so it
no longer matter what platform you are using, and if I remember it
correctly, thee's a RDP client for mac but you will want to check
it out first.

It would be
expensive, approximately $100 per workstation for TS + Citrix CALs
plus the windows server. But would allow you to work with Windows
apps on the Mac.

Yes, there definitely is a Mac RDP client (as well as a Linux one),
and the Mac version was updated to a new, more efficient version in
the last couple of months.

1. Do you need Citrix to use the Windows Terminal Server from the
Mac RDP client?

I've used Windows Terminal Services for remote Access
databases before (without Citrix) and the performance was not as
quick and efficient as I'd hoped. I'm also wondering if you can
use a virtualized Mac OS X server as a Windows Terminal Server.

2. The Sharepoint web publishing on Access 2010 sound promising.
Anybody know what the expected release date is? I've heard
Sharepoint comes packaged with Windows Server? Wondering what the
costs would be for a company who does not currently have
Sharepoint. Also, is it worth using Sharepoint if the only reason
is to run an Access database?

3. What do we think about the possibility of a web-based frontend
with active server pages? Worthwhile? I haven't done this, so I'm
not entirely clear how this would work. Would we need a Windows
server?

The Terminal server CAL is $40. If you also need to purchase CALs
for Citrix.

Banana wrote: "As for having Sharepoint; you don't have to buy
Sharepoint; you can just sign up with a hosting provider that
offers Sharepoint. I do not know
enough about its licensing/hosting charges to provide a good
answer."

David Fenton wrote: "The cost [of using SharePoint] is very, very
high, in fact, if you use anything very significant."

I'm a little unclear on how this works. You don't need a Windows
server if you sign up with a provider that offers SharePoint? Is
that still very expensive? (Remember, this is a very small
business.)

I think the client would probably need to buy a Windows Terminal
Server. (A previous client of mine bought a WTS for $40K and as I
mentioned the performance was very disappointing.

Probably did need
more bandwidth.) You can't have a Mac server double as a Windows
Terminal Server by using virtualization software?