Developing Access DB to SQL?
How large is your database? If you expect that your database will not grow to larger than 10 GB, and you are familiar with SQL Server, then you can use SQL Server Express Edition. If you don't need any of the enterprise features (page/row compression, HA/DR, encryption, table partitioning, etc), it's a great way to manage smaller amounts of data...and its free!

I've never personally used a set-up with Access ADP as a front-end, but I've heard it works fine for straight-forward data management. If you have the time/resources, creating a simple web-based front end for management (or buying something out of the box that sits on SQL Server) might allow you to reduce the complexity even further.