>>PMFJI and for very naive question. How would VFP app work in a cloud? From Rick Strahl's message it would like having a VM box somewhere in the "cloud". But what I don't understand is, if the VM is not on the customer LAN, how do users load VFP application?
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>Depends on what you're trying to do. If you're running a Web Server that you want to host - everything just lives on that box and the server runs there like a physical machine would. For Web apps this is a good way to go...
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>For other types of apps that same model doesn't work so well unless you have some remote access technology (remote desktop or Citrix etc.) to allow people to access the machines remotely and run on the desktop. I wouldn't think that VMs would be the best fit for this though because virtualization does have a performance impact and you typically want all the hardware you can afford for any kind of large remote access technology. A real physical heavy duty box probably wouldn't be a bad call for this sort of thing...
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>But in general - software is going to the Web/Cloud and that's really where VMs make much more sense because the app is a server that's self contained and you really don't care (as long as you got enough horsepower) whether it's running on a physical box or a VM. Running on a VM has the advantage that you can copy it and it can automatically be scaled up with multiple copies if required.
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I am intrigued by your statement that "software is going to the Web/Cloud." Not because I disagree with you, because you already know I respect you as much as anyone in this industry. It just gets my attention that you say it. That's where you really think things are headed? Maybe I better rethink this whole thing. Up to now I have regarded the cloud as just another Microsoft "marketecture" designed to increase revenue. I do not want to be slow on another paradigm shift.