I have some rudimentary questions about what a server can & cannot do for my cabinet shop.

I currently operate six databases that are hosted on a web server that I rent access to.

For $80 a month I could theoretically host up to 50 databases with up to 5 simultaneous users at a time.

I would like to add a half dozen client stations to my shop so need to revisit how best to do this.

One of the big uses for this server is to pass out tasks and manage documents.

We currently imbed PDF drawings in a container field.

The major weakspot to embedding is that we cannot archive old drawings here.

After we get more than about 30 records with embedded documents the database seems to lock up.

If you give it a command (or type too fast) you just get presented with the spinning beach ball of death.

I think the solution is to make these documents referenced rather than embedded but I don't think I can do this with my current hosting package.

In a perfect world I would like to have the speed and robustness of a local area network but still have my files accessible from anywhere.

Is it possible to set up my own server in a way that I can access it remotely yet still have it behave like a local area network within my shop?

I.E., can I upload original documents remotely and reference them on a local basis for use on client stations at my shop?

Or will cloud computing be a better solution for this goal?

You are already experiencing cloud computing: your files are hosted on a remote server. That's more or less the essence of cc.

You certainly could host on your own local server and still have remote access. You'll need to have your ISP set you up with a static IP address, and you'd want a machine dedicated to FileMaker Server.

Either local or remote, you should look into SuperContainer and possibly DocuBin for your file storage. Talk to the guys at 360Works, they know what they are doing.

"I currently operate six databases that are hosted on a web server that I rent access to."

Huh? You can't host Filemaker files on a web server. Do you mean that you are using a FM Hosting service?

"I currently operate six databases that are hosted on a web server that I rent access to."

Huh? You can't host Filemaker files on a web server. Do you mean that you are using a FM Hosting service?

Yes. I meant to say I was using an FM Hosting service.

For $80 a month I could theoretically host up to 50 databases with up to 5 simultaneous users at a time.

In a perfect world I would like to have the speed and robustness of a local area network but still have my files accessible from anywhere.

How important is that "access from anywhere" to you?

For $80 a month, more if you go over the 4 users, you can buy a decent entry level server to host your FM solutions and pay it off in 18 months at those rates.

If only one or two users absolutely must have remote "anywhere" access then you would punishing everyone with slow access because of those tho if you host it remotely. Referencing files in containers is almost impossible in a remote hosting scenario.