title: Should clients have direct access to the database?
body: <p>Should client applications be coded so that they connect to and retrieve data from the remote SQL database?</p>
  
  <p>Based on my knowledge I would say that is extremely bad practice, and you should have a server application which handles all clients and acts as a central unit for retrieving data - is this right?</p>
  
  <p>Are business information systems ever built without a server application to handle clients?</p>