I am following this, looks promising...

What should we expect from china firewall? Do they Block outgoing conections to public IP as a roule, or they close access bases on some kind of avaliation? 

Depending on how your current environment is configured.

You might be able to get away with creating a separate virtual machine, install a second Syracuse server and a second runtime component (with adxadmin). You would then set this machine to the same time zone as the china-based location. Once both the Syracuse and runtime are completely connected to the rest of the application you can then use the x3tag feature to have all the china users connecting to use the runtime in the china time zone. This maintains the timestamps and allows the data entry from china to remain in china time. Then you can either expose the Syracuse externally with an SSL or secondary auth or have a VPN for the users to use, or a terminal server where they can access via web browser. This is just a basic overview. I have seen a couple of international companies that have locations in multiple countries, so I know it is possible.

 Setting up a second Syracuse to load balance with the first in separate time zones take a little while. Along with configuring a second runtime and assigning the users to that runtime. I do not know the complexity of exposing Syracuse to a DMZ or outside network, but I assume it’s not too complicated.

I also do not know the "strictness" of protocols for China. I would think it would be easier to have china connect to to a hosted machine instead of china having there own machine and trying to communicate across the world to the other.

Having everything in a cloud or hosted environment may make access easier.

Great insights Chris thank you.

My initial consideration was simply; How do I get our China based users access to our existing X3 implementation.

You've raised an important consideration here RE getting dates & timestamps correct per timezone.

My interpretation of your notes is that we essentially need a syracuse server per timezone and data feeding a central database (either in cloud or the existing onPrem one in USA).

eg. If we support China and UK based users, then we need 3 syracuse servers for each of US, UK and China timezones.

Thinking more; I suspect the additional syracuse servers will be necessary to handle different language/ character sets/ legislation for each region too.

Am I interpreting this correctly?

Thanks Andre- Interesting question;

At this moment, our china based users can actually access our US based X3 implementation. It's not super quick but it works OK. The question is for how long can we rely on this access. (and following Chris Hann's post below, I need to check what dates are recorded on records that are entered from China).

What is and isn't blocked by China firewall changes quickly and regularly. My understanding is that China wants data hosted in China (either onPrem or with Chinese Cloud providers). Where data is not hosted in China, firewall access is tending towards being difficult.

This is an interesting summary;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websites_blocked_in_mainland_China

yes and no. Technically the runtime component is what actually controls the timestamps. Syracuse is the GUI in which the users interact with the application. common practice is simply segregating users (by region) with their own servers to minimize lag and performance scenarios. If you take a look through our Knowledgebase you can find several KBAs on performance. Depending on the number of active users in each region you may need more than 1 syracuse server and/or more than one per region. rule-of-thumb is 50 users per syracuse server.

Don't they just usually use VPN in China to work with foreign services? Browsec is pretty reliable - https://vpn-review.com/browsec/ They provide many services and a free-plan. But of course, there are more VPNs worth attention, it just depends on one's demands.

TJunction said:

Any recommendations on how to approach this?

You can find China Telecom or China Unicom to lease a dedicated network, we have customers in the US, servers in China,  Performance is Ok.