Hi All,

I'm looking at having to implement an Oracle box as a data source for my VFP Data Warehousing applications. I need some basic info on what capabilities Oracle has for data replication.

My situation would be a custom-built (as far as hardware) oracle server installed on my WAN, that would be storing data from 7 unix boxes that run a proprietary billing system. I have decided I do not want to use this Oracle server as the primary backend for my data warehousing applications, and instead just leave it function as a repository for the raw data I'll eventually use in my VFP apps.

So I need to choose between the following options...
A.) Develop application to extract only the data I need from the oracle repository box and store it on another machine that will become the backend for my apps (I need to process and normalize about 60% of the raw data for reporting and analysis tasks)

B.) Just have the Oracle box replicate the raw data to my backend directly, and then build a typical 3 tier client server environment straight off of this second machine for my VFP apps. (What platform to use for this second machine is also open to my decision. I'm considering either VFP on NT 4.0, SQL Server, or maybe even Oracle)

Any input or ideas on this will be greatly appreciated. (It's the season for budgets, planning, estimates, and all that other stuff that ruins a programmer's fun) :D) TIA!!!