I am making a Java small program for some myself and some friends that we will use to work on projects together.
The program relies on MySQL for data but I don't want every one of the client machines (20 in total) connecting to the database directly because it leaves too much exposed on the server side.
What method is used in large corporations where multiple client machines running some program which uses data stored in MySQL. Surely they do not all connect to the database directly??
BTW - Lets keep this confined to Java please