The MS Access Client-Server configuration uses MS Access converted to an MDE format for deployment to End Users' desktops which are connected to any ODBC-compliant data store such as SQL Server or Oracle. The MS Access Client-Server design gains all the benefits of SQL Server while maintaining the application front-end in MS Access, and represents the most common and MS Access migration approach.

Properly designed to use the Database Server performance and security, the MDE type MS Access Client-Server approach supports MS Access migration with rapid development, ease of maintenance, data transactions and fairly robust performance. MS Access or its runtime engine is required for deployment, and the End User can easily get direct access to the data tables and queries.

MS Access Data Project Application Scorecard
Number of End Users	Any	IE Browser
Application Performance	Good	MS Access run-time start-up expense
Application Reliability	Good	SQL Server design-dependent
Data Integrity	Excellent	SQL Server design-dependent
Application Security	Excellent	Uses SQL Server security
Maintenance Burden	Low	Repair & Compact, Restore common

Typically deployed to a network share, MDE MS Access Client-Server applications are recommended for non-regulated, shared data across a LAN, for example, inter-department management of statistics and production analysis. MDE MS Access Client-Server applications are limited to LAN deployment. Large front-end applications can be slow to load over a WAN. The MS Access Client-Server approach does expose the data tables directly to the End User, which can present security or data integrity issues.