将桌面客户端直接连接到MySQL是否明智？

I'm writing a Java desktop client application that retrieves data from a remote MySQL server. For development purposes I have had it connecting directly to the MySQL server (i.e. with DriverManager.getConnection(databaseURL) etc.), but have been intending to move to using a web service (once that'd been built). My question is whether I couldn't just continue with the direct connection?I'm writing a Java desktop client application t