Once your app is connection to SQL Server it doesn't care. You can change the connection to connect to a different database or a different server. You can develop your app by attaching an MDF file while debugging and then simply change the connection string when you deploy to connect to an existing database on a local or remote server. It's all the same to your app.

SQL Server will handle a lot of those tasks for you. You should use the in-built capabilities of the server as much as you can. For anything else you can build the functionality into your app when the time comes.