[dbryant25]

I work for the Tampa Museum of Art, and we are currently in the process of separating from the City of Tampa. We formerly were technically a department of the city, but now we are a separate 501(c)3 management organization in charge of the Museum operations. Currently, the City of Tampa maintains our Raiser's Edge database server, but we are hoping to get off of the city servers and move our files to our own server or a third-party option.

I was wondering if there are any other art museums or similar organizations that have separated from municipal systems like this. If so, what did you find was the best course of action for Raiser's Edge? We have looked into outsourcing our RE database to Capital Business Solutions and RSM McGladrey, but we found that option to be too expensive. We are also looking at a "virtual dedicated server" option to cut costs. Has anyone attempted to use a virtual dedicated server company (like Rackspace)? If so, what problems/difficulties did you encounter?

Thanks in advance!

Sincerely,
David Bryant
Capital Campaign Manager
Tampa Museum of Art
david.bryant@tampamuseum.org
Website: www.tampamuseum.com

[cbusse]

Regarding the dedicated virtual server, I have a client who has a remotely accessible RE server in their office that can be access two ways, either of which could be replicated on a virtual dedicated server:

1. by Virtual Private Network (VPN): In this scenario, the user runs the Raiser's Edge software from their PC/laptop remotely (ie. at home). This works pretty well, but can be a bit laggy at times. Also, the Export feature is absolutely unbearable in this manner. A 30 minute export in the office can take overnight or longer over the VPN. I have a theory that the Export feature does a lot of "round trips" with the data to dedupe it from what is chosen in the Query.

2. by Remote Desktop (RDP): In this scenario, the user connects to the server with the Remote Desktop Client included with Windows. To do this right, the server really needs to be running Terminal Services or a similar Citrix host package. However, if you don't need more than two simultaneous connections and you're willing to let someone log onto the RE server as if it were their own PC, this can be done with the included Remote Desktop service in Windows. This would definitely not be a "best practice" by any means.