title: Concurrently access database with Excel as frontend - doable?
body: <p>Suppose you have an database with the largest tables containing about 200.000 rows, and frequently modified. The client wants Excel to connect via ODBC to the database, and work as a frontend to manage the data. The data should be modifiable by up to 25 users concurrently. </p>
  
  <p>My first instinct would be to recommend something else, for example a web frontend. But suppose the client insists on the Excel solution, would you regard it as doable, and what pitfalls would you see in it?</p>
  
  <p>My doubts would be about:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>data integrity (how to manage users modifying same data at the same time)
  <li>large amounts of data moved unnecessarily (when opening the Excel workbook I imagine that the whole database has to be transferred)
  <li>security (showing only parts of data to appropriate users in a secure way would be challenging - see previous point)
  <li>using a tool (Excel) for something, in which it doesn't excel (pardon the pun)
  </ol>