Excel Front end with backend database (Any database)

Hi all,

I have been scouring the net for the most optimum solution but could not find one. Hence the thread!

Objective - To provide conditional data in excel from SQL. Performance of 10-40 seconds per report generation. Min 100rows to Max 40-50k rows in total per report.

Inputs - Have 20 SQL database tables that need to be queried. (no joins required only conditions that are specified in excel by the user)
Output - Lets say there are 12 tables. Each table represents data from each month. If i choose 26th day - Data for 26th day of each month is generated
- Since the number of rows in each table could be more than 20k, its not possible to keep the entire data in excel. Need a back end database that links to excel and works faster than vba+sql
- Speed is a constraint else VBA works perfectly fine with a local database
- No need for multiple user environment.
Constraints - Cannot replace excel but can replace sql database. Like create an offline cube, access database or anything that would not require new license (sql2008, access10, excel10 available)
Others - I feel i can use offline cubes for 30% of my current requirement. Especially for the data that can be represented in pivots. Do offline cubes first transfer the entire data to excel?

With my limited experience I feel that an optimum solution could be a combination of Offline cubes and VBA connections to query sql data. But I would like to learn something new from the gurus here.

Regards,
A Humble disciple

Why wouldn't you be using Access for this.