C/D/H Talks Tech

What is the most compelling reason to upgrade to Windows 7? 

I’ve been asked this a lot lately, and if your organization has any employees that are mobile users, DirectAccess is the main reason to upgrade. 

What is DirectAccess?  Essentially DirectAccess is a clientless VPN solution that will enable mobile computers to appear as if they are directly on your internal network.  So, if I am sitting at a coffee shop or at home and need to access my mapped drive, it will appear as if I am plugged into my network. 

DirectAccess provides seamless access to intranet resources.   From a cost perspective, DirectAccess can help organizations reduce devices in the network edge.  There is also no need for expensive VPN devices and troubleshooting client VPN connections.

As an IT administrator, DirectAccess enables me to manage client machines as if they are physically connected to my intranet.  If I have logon scripts that normally run when I log into my computer, they will run when I log into my laptop at home.  If I have System Center Configuration Manager configured in Native Mode, I am normally not able to remotely control desktops that are not on the intranet, but with DirectAccess I can use remote control functionality and support clients. 

Now, what do you need from a technical perspective to get this technology working?  First, you need your client devices to be running Windows 7.  You will need to configure an internal Public Key Infrastructure and deploy client certificates to devices.  Next, you will need to begin implementing IPV6 inside your environment.  IPV6 is a requirement both on the client and server side.  You will need to configure at least one Windows Server 2008 domain controller and any servers you would like the DirectAccess device to access with IPV6 addresses. 

Microsoft offers a variety of tools to help assist in the transition to IPV6.  Once that is complete, you configure a Windows Server 2008 R2 server as a DirectAccess server. 

For more information see the following TechNet article http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/network/dd420463.aspx and contact me with questions.