Good bosses

Now I have a requirement, just want to through the direct way to access the database, but also want to try to improve performance,

Is that we had an estimated 40 clients through direct access to database, the so-called direct-connect is by account, password, address and other information of socket to connect, but such a problem, if the database account password change, we need the client to update them one by one account, very troublesome,

Now we want to through the direct way, is the way such as via HTTP with json, speaking, reading and writing database, the server is an executable written in other languages,

Want to consult everybody:

1, this way than the socket directly connected, performance comparison, there will be a loss?

2, there are no more recommend the direct solution?

Thank you very much!