Hello:

Getting ready to launch a  project which uses a remote DB to store and
disseminate client data as it is assigned to various practitioners
within a health network. We have been using a very funky old Windows
Server 2008 RC2, with minimal ram (I think 3gb) and only 1 cpu, for the
remote server during development and I would like to hear your opinions
about what would be a good starting server for the project. We are
looking into getting a new hosting service.

My background is an acupuncturist who has made doing Delphi desktop
programming and working with Firebird my hobby and parttime job. Just
letting you know that so you can anticipate my level of experience with
the topic. I managed to set up the current server just by following
directions (from Mantis) and all the Firebird references I could find.
Other than that, I really did not know what I was doing. And had no
previous experience with this.

Since 2003 I have developed a desktop program to do a particular medical
protocol. In the last few years the protocol's developer, is getting
ready to pull back on his own clinic work as he gets closer to retiring
and would like to mentor practitioners by assigning his clients to them
and monitor their progress and give support to the practitioners.

Initially, there are only two practitioners that work up to his
expectations and they would handle perhaps 3-20 clients per day. The
work would still be done on the individual desktop programs with their
local DB, but I have added threaded (IBObject based) routines to
send/retrieve client data to the remote DB. This allows for the mentor
to review the patient progress and when indicated, to re-assign patients
to other practitioners. Also, his office will bill the patients and pay
the practitioners.

There are 9 threaded routines that connect separately to the remote DB
for each desktop program running. They do not all run at the same time,
but several do overlap. The server itself is hosting a Mantis BT web
site. There are 3 DBs there, 1 small authorization/security DB for the
program; 1 modest sized DB (initially a few hundred Mbs) that will store
session PDFs; and the main patient session records which is starting out
at 500 mb, because of commonly shared protocol data, and could grow to
multi-Gb in a year or so.

What I am seeing in development are variable processing times for the
exact same routines, for the exact same data running all over the map.
In one instance (the initial remote DB check for new patients and their
data) ranges from a low of 6 seconds to as much as 1:09 minutes.

I believe this has everything to do with the funky server, but I am
truly interested in making sure when switching to another host that we
start off with enough resources to handle what I describe. Can you give
me more details about what to ask for?

Thank you,

Chuck Belanger