External Web Server to Access database to Ignition Gateway

We need a data from an external web server (e.g. WESM Web Server) via the internet. WESM Web server will provide an API where we can use to extract the data from WESM Web server and will be received by Ignition Gateway using Access database which is installed in the same server where the Ignition gateway. This mean we need to have an internet enabled.

My questions are,

  1. Does this setup secure? From an external server to Access database then to Ignition Gateway . What setup is recommended?
  2. Do I still need to put the VPN for that?
  3. Do I need to open the port 8088 (http) for that? Or need a public IP?

Please enlighten me. Thank you

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