Remote Access

Just a little update on the remote access situation before I’m off to a secret location for 3 weeks of camping, fishing and crabbing…. whoohoo.
We’ve decided to evaluate 3 potential solutions:
     • Upgrading our current VPN solution to support 64 bit clients
     • Trialling our WAN provider’s VPN offering for a limited number of users (5)
     • Utilizing the DirectAccess feature of the upcoming Windows Server 2008 R2
Of these the latter is definitely looking to be the most promising. It’s an always-on feature, meaning that remote users won’t need to establish a VPN connection. It appears to pretty much enable them to do everything they can in the office, as well as allow us greater manageability of remote users. Windows Server 2008 R2 is due for release at the same time as Windows 7. Talk about good timing.
There’s lots of good info here:
http://www.microsoft.com/servers/directaccess.mspx
So by the time I get back all 3 of these solutions should be magically deployed and ready for our pilot users. Almost makes me want to rush back. Did I mention I’ll be out of phone/email range for most of the time? Oh well.