Communicate Sql Server over http

I just wanted to have some suggestions here. Right now, I have a client server application, using a windows application (.net) as a client and SQL server 2005 as a database server. The application is working fine and they are using within their intranet network; but suddenly a change comes in and they are saying that开发者_开发知识库 they would like to use over Internet. So, should I develop a web service which would be sitting between the windows application and database or the client (windows application) should communicate directly to the database server? What would be the better way to implement this?

Thanks Thurein

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A web service, definitely. WCF Data Services are designed for this kind of scenario (exposing a database using a REST API).

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I definitely would go the soap middleware route. Exposing ones database directly to the internet isn't very appetizing.