>Assume a server in the corporate office with Sql Server 2008.
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>Offices all over the country, connected to corporate on a VPN.
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>VFP program, currently with data in Fox, which has data to be sent to corporate once a day. Framework handles remote views very well, very comfortable doing them. Framework has a connection manager, so each office will open only one connection to server.
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>How would I want to work the licensing on the SQL Server. Offices can stagger times for update, full update procedure should take no more than 5-10 minues. No need for a full-time connection. 100 or more field offices.
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>Future design involves converting backend in the field to local SQL Express 2008 databases. What would be my options in that case for connecting to and updating to and from corporate server using SQL Server services?

One possibility would be to install a FOSS DB server like PostgreSQL or MySQL at corporate, and have the field offices talk to that. No licensing issues whatsoever.

You would then need a process at corporate that periodically queried the FOSS DB, looking for new updates to move across to the central SQL Server 2008 database.