Assistance with Network Drives

Hi all,

I'm fairly new to this so please excuse me if I use the wrong terminology or if this is not appropriate for this sub. I have a small business that has 8 employees at various locations in the US and abroad. Recently we created an access database to speed up our work, gives users access to needed information, and most importantly reduce mistakes that were costing us money. The database works well on our desktops and when thinking about how to port it so that every user has access to the data in the backend I'm at a loss. What I essentially need is the front-end application on their machines that will connect to the back-end in a central location. I've considered the following:

• Porting the back-end to an SQL server (azure) - this will be the future goal but involves a lot of tweaking as things are rather slow right now. I would like an interim solution so the database can be used while I can recode the future one at night.
• Building out a server at my location that will host the shared network drive all the users can either log into (if they are on site) or remote desktop log into and be able to access the back-end this way. This one is the one that concerns me the most because I have no idea how to set one up properly and then maintain it so it doesn't go down. Some of my folks work around the clock (depending on their time zone) so I fear that the server would just go down because of the power outages that frequent this building.
• Using a virtual desktop like Amazon WorkSpaces where users can just login and then just already be on the same network. I love this one the most, but when trying to map network drives I can never make them work. I also don't know how it works if the Administrator account (that has the back-end on their folder) is not logged into. Will they be able to access it or not. There are just no good tutorials on this one and mapping drives don't seem to work easily as the PC's we have in the office. It would be nice if remote logins were allowed for this but I can't find anything letting me know.
  
• Using a remote desktop hosting tool like AccessHosting where users can just remote login to a specific desktop that can handle concurrent users and where the front-end and back-end are on the same virtual desktop. I like this one, but the support folks are very, very slow in trying to even set up a trial account and I fear that it won't be a "stable" solution for the next 6 months while I retune things for the SQL server.

I've contacted two different IT consulting firms to help but their options were too cumbersome and expensive. They were not motivated to help find me an economical and minimal maintenance type situation which is why I'm here asking you all for your thoughts. Anything would be appreciated.