Sage 200 Evolution and remote clients (via VPN) - safe to use?

SOLVED

Good day,

We provide remote access for staff using corporate laptops and VPN, and provide staff with virtual machines hosted on the head office network which they have to use (via RDP) in order to access Sage 200 Evolution. This is not a great user experience and it would be better if remote staff could launch the Sage 200 Evo client on their laptops via the VPN connection, however I would like to determine whether there are any risks with this approach, i.e. data corruption, session errors, etc. Any guidance will be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards, Byron.

  • 0

    Hi Byron

    Certainly.

    Please confirm the following with regards to your required setup:

    Do you still want to install Evolution locally on each separate laptop with the Evolution company database located on the RDP server?
    Or do you intend to have the Evolution installation (and company DB's) on the RDP server?

    Kind Regards

    Bennie 

  • 0 in reply to Bennie Pienaar

    Hi Bennie,

    Thanks for your response. Essentially the Evolution client is to be installed on each separate laptop, with the Evolution Application/Database Server residing on the head office network, accessible via VPN (no RDP involved). HTH.

    Kind regards, Byron.

  • 0 in reply to Byron Henning

    Thanks for providing clarity, Byron 

    I'll soon confirm if this setup is indeed possible.

    I'm having a meeting with Evolution Development on Wednesday 7 October 2020 and will ask on your (and for general knowledge sake's) behalf  Slight smile

    Chat soon

    Bennie 

  • +1 in reply to Bennie Pienaar
    verified answer

    Hi Byron

    I'm opening a new internal query on our CRM to have better control over researching and responding to your query.

    Therefore, can I please ask you to send me a private message in Sage City including your company name, customer number and e-mail address?

    Then I can log the query and respond back to you via e-mail 

    Will that be OK with you?

    Kind Regards

    Bennie 

  • 0 in reply to Bennie Pienaar

    Thanks Bennie, PM sent.

  • 0 in reply to Byron Henning

    Thanks Brent!

    And I have also responded Slight smile

  • 0

    Hi there, I'm not able to find a straight out answer to this question...whether or not it's SAFE (not secure...that's a different question) to access the Evolution SQL instance remotely via a VPN.  The question is also not really whether it's possible, as I know it is possible (we access other SQL databases via VPN all the time) BUT not sure if there's any unknown mechanisms within Evolution that has a problem with doing so??

  • 0 in reply to JordanDHL

    Hi Jordan

    Please elaborate a bit more.

    1) What is the difference between Safe and Secure?

    2) How exactly do you  'access the Evolution SQL instance remotely via a VPN'

    When doing what exactly at that moment? What is the goal of accessing the Evolution SQL instance?

    Sorry, this may sound like a stupid question but I just need to properly understand. Slight smile

    Kind Regards

    Bennie 

  • 0 in reply to Bennie Pienaar

    Hi Bennie,

    1) By "Secure" I'm refer to the risk of unauthorized access to the data AND by "Safe" I meaning that there's potential risk of breaking the software or corrupt the data in some way due to connection quality issues or other unknown weaknesses in the program.
    2) Well as I'm sure you know a VPN creates a direct connection over the internet...as if you were on the same LAN or physical network as the SQL server.  So you can thus access the same network resources (depending on your security setup) including Sage Evolution's SQL backend...as if you are physically on that same LAN.  There are some differences as in speed, latency and packet loss...depending on the various internet speeds and quality, and these are the x factors I worry about.  SQL itself however is built to deal with those or so I'm told from the SQL experts.

    The goal is simple, to have a user that normally sits onsite connected to the physical LAN while working on Sage Evolution, also have the option to work remotely on that same Sage Evolution workstation application by just enabling a VPN (or in our case a more complex SDN) from whatever remote internet connection they available to them.

    Somebody once told me there are no stupid questions, just stupid answers...so I hope I didn't give you any of those?? Stuck out tongue winking eye

  • 0 in reply to JordanDHL

    Hi Jordan

    Thanks for your detailed response above, it definitely is not a stupid answer Slight smile

    I know it's 100% possible to set up a VPN for Evolution users to access the LAN remotely via the Internet.

    So, do you require my assistance to help you set up the VPN? Exactly how can we still assist you in this regard?

    Else, if you want to, send me a Sage City Friend Invite,  and then in a private chat send me your contact details so I can send you a MS Teams meeting invite if you want to discuss it further.