Aaron
Thanks for this one - I had actually wondered about doing that but the trouble is that they say that they need up to the minute reports not "as of last night". Indeed, I do have another app where I do just that because I find that reports indexes/requirements are very different to transactional type requirements. However, you have made me make up my mind to see if I can persuade them to work on data that is a day old.
You could also look at the cost/benefit: if they bring the database down, how much would it cost the business? If they are working on day old data, how much would it cost? Get the user to write down and justify their numbers. This will show to you and the user whether it is really necessary to report off of the live data.
Good luck!
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Aaron Bono
Aranya Software Technologies, Inc.
http://www.aranya.com
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