>>>Hi,
>>>
>>>My VFP 9 application usually resides on a VM server. And the users/clients have the desktop shortcuts pointing to the executable residing on the VM server (e.g. in folder c:\myvfp9app\myapp.exe)
>>>
>>>I need to tell the customer IT person that in order for the application to respond better (speed of connection and loading various windows) the VM server has to be "closer" to the customers. For example, if the users are in the state of Florida, the VM server has to be somewhere closer to the users/clients in this state.
>>>
>>>What term do I use to tell the IT person instead of "closer" (kind of not very technical :)). That is, how do I explain/define this concept?
>>
>>What's the overall architecture:
>>
>>- The VM server includes the RDS (Terminal Server) role, and remote users are given RDS sessions (i.e. your EXE runs in sessions directly on the RDS server), or
>>
>>- The VM server simply hosts the files, and your EXE runs at the remote client sites?
>
>The latter. The VM server hosts the executable and meta data. And the client runs the EXE from the desktop (as a shortcut). There is also a SQL Server which will be somewhere, I don't know where. But right now I am just trying to tell them some parameters for the VM "location"

Are you architecting and setting this up yourself, or do you have someone helping you? Have you considered the RDS option and fully understand its benefits?

The way you've described your situation so far, the idea of being physically "closer" doesn't mean much. The main difference is whether your various application components (SQL Server, EXE, DBF metadata) communicate with each other over a local area network (LAN) or even within the same physical computer (fast), or if various components have to communicate with each other over the public Internet (slow).