Optimizing Windows Server 2008 R2 for Branch Office Communications

Today’s organizations are likely to consist of many branch offices. On average, a branch office is a small office hosting fewer than 50 employees in a remote location. Typically, a branch office infrastructure is connected to the headquarters site, centralized data center, or hub site by means of a wide area network (WAN) link in a distributed fashion. Due to the high costs associated with purchasing bandwidth, these WAN links are usually slow, unreliable, and inefficient. Finally, most branch offices lack physical security and IT support personnel.
For many organizations, maintaining branch offices generates significant operational costs and administrative challenges. Two scenarios exist when dealing with branch offices because of the high costs of securing high-speed links between the branch office and hub site. Either the organization implements server infrastructure at the branch office or IT services are provided to the branch office from a centralized site such as the company headquarters.

By providing branch offices with their own infrastructure productivity increases; however, operational and management costs typically rise. When providing services to a branch office from a centralized site, its productivity is reduced as all branch office users must obtain services over a slow and unreliable WAN link. In addition, if the WAN link becomes unavailable, productivity at the branch office can come to a halt until the WAN link is repaired. As you can see, each scenario has cost and efficiency trade-offs.

Challenges like the one just described might, however, become a thing of the past for branch offices. Windows Server 2008 R2 provides new technology solutions that allow organizations to integrate branch offices seamlessly into the organization’s infrastructure.

Source of Information : Sams - Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed