>From a VFP desktop app I am using ODBC SQL Server Native Client to access a remote DB Server (hosted on Amazon). The performance of this remote DB is 10x slower than the performance of a local DB Server. My internet connection is ~10mb and my lan is 100mb, so is it safe to say that the performance is strictly due to the size of the pipe, or is there something else I should look at?

I'm with Sergey assuming the the number of servers/FW/routers in between is more to the point.
How about plotting 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10000, 100000 recs returned via fetchall and for kicks in a loop with fetchone ?
might give you a better handle on latency/routing part involved

regards

thomas