Hi Lars,
By the very nature of the situation you are going to have to either fetch the data or get the data sent to you. Fetching the data meaning allowing remote access to whatever business system(s) hold the data. Sending the data is like the idea you have about generating QVDs at each site.
Regardless of the method you will have to ensure that you are transporting the data in a secure way. It is important that access to either a database or some sort of file staging area is first secured by allowing your IP address (or some other identifier such as a hostname or MAC), then enforcing some form of user/password and finally ensuring that data cannot be read between the two endpoints - it must be encrypted.
You say that you dont want to mess with firewalls so this would typically mean using existing openings (such as email or a VPN for example) - it does rather limit your choice!
A possible setup would be to have a process at each site that generates the data that you need. This could be a QVD, or maybe just a simple CSV export file. You then send this data to staging area - typically SFTP (not FTP!). Your master QVW then reads all of that data. The only downside of this approach is that it involves the most work- firewalls, staging area, SFTP configuration, data exports etc.- there is a lot to go wrong. If you end up going this way have a look at WinSCP - it has a feature to syncronise remote areas with one another, meaning that you dont have to worry about the scripting behind syncing files and sending them.
The easiest method is to have secure access directly to the datasources. There is less to go wrong and it easy to implement. The biggest problem is the idea of having critical systems exposed - people get scared. This way would involve firewall config and detailed auditing.
I would go to your top man with 2 options-
1-Exporting data on site and sending it somewhere
2-allowing remote access to key systems
He/she can then choose - I expect them to choose number 1 😉
Good luck!
-Adam
