Which computers to install which applications

[Sean Evans]

Let me start out with some details on the situation and that I am completely new to SQL. I work for a small company and we keep track of a lot of data for clients using excel. I have developed a number of tools using VBA to manage this data, generate documentation, etc. I would like to take all this a step forward and move all this data to using an SQL database as well as create a more robust stand-alone program to interact with the database, MS Office, and Acrobat to manage the database, manage the documentation, and provide feedback to clients (charts and such based on the data). I would like to do this using Visual Basic in Visual Studio to create a program to interact with the database that employees can use to input data and generate documents by pulling data.

I've seen some tutorials on how to program to interact with SQL and it seems like something I can handle, but where my question lies is in the install and setup. I plan to host the database on our server and work on the development on my work computer and remote desktop to the server if needed.

This leads to my question. What all needs to be installed on the server, and what needs to be installed on my computer to develop the program? For example, does the server just need the Server application, and my computer need the connectors, client, and such?