With the increase in the number of mobile users, growing organizations are finding it difficult to maintain connectivity with their mobile workforce, when they are not connected to the network. This has an adverse impact on the productivity because the users are unable to connect to corporate resources easily. Also, because mobile users remain disconnected when they are outside the network, it is difficult for the administrators to keep the mobile computers up-to-date.
Windows 7 improves connectivity with the help of features such as Mobile Broadband DirectAccess, VPN Reconnect, and BranchCache.
This is huge! Windows 7 + Windows Server 2008 R2 enable mobile users to access the corporate LAN more readily and cut down the need to connect via VPN.
Outlook Anywhere
allows Outlook 2007 to connect to the Exchange 2007 server using any
Internet connection. It makes it simple to check e-mail during those 15
minutes you're at the airport connected via your Mobile Broadband card
or those 30 minutes you're connected via wi-fi at Starbucks while
enjoying your latte.
Anywhere Access goes one step (one giant
step) forward to include the corporate LAN. While there will still be
applications that require a VPN connection, there should be far fewer
now.
Windows 7 can connect directly with your Mobile Broadband
card and no longer requires the proprietary dialer application. Anyone
with a Mobile Broadband card knows the dialers are not without their
quirks and add an additional layer of complexity to the connection.
That alone is worth the price of admission.
Administrators can push security updates or policy changes to the remote computer without waiting for the user to connect via VPN or return to the office. This should make all those machines more secure and reduce the amount of time spent applying updates when re-connecting to the LAN or connecting via VPN on a slower Internet connection.