Gemstone/S is generally accessed via netLDI service. I have a Gemstone/S on a hosted server and I connect to it from my development environment in my notebook.
The question is, what is best practice (or provide for a more stable environment): connecting to a local netLDI service and having it deal with a remote Gemstone/S, or connecting remotely to the netLDI running alonside the Gemstone/S server?
I'm currently using the second option (as above) to connect via SSH port forward from a tODE/Pharo setup in my notebook to the netLDI service running on my hosted server.
AFAIK, Dale developed tODE to be used exactly in the way (2nd option) you described. His earlier solution used a chatty protocol from a Pharo image to connect to the netLDI. That worked best running the pharo image on the same machine as the Gemstone, and connecting through VNC (preferably compressed, or NX). That was perfectly all right with a server on the same side of the continent (latency 40ms) but not so nice connecting from Europe to a US server. tODE deals much better with long latencies.
I don't know, but would expect the netLDI to need to be closer to the stones than the clients.