Microsoft’s Infrastructure Planning and Development guide for DirectAccess is now available in Beta form, the intent being to solicit feedback. Having already crossed this bridge myself, I recommend taking this opportunity to read the guide and ask questions if you think you may find yourself tasked with investigating, deploying, or integrating with DirectAccess. It’s a complex, albeit compelling, technology (or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it’s a compelling application of several complex technologies).

What is DirectAccess? Well, I won’t be able to do it better justice than this TechNet video. But briefly it’s an always-connected roaming user solution for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

One additional observation, since the developers in the audience may be asking, “I’m not an IT guy; why should I care?” Because developers should be writing their software to (a) operate securely regardless of whether it’s behind a firewall, (b) smoothly transition between connected and disconnected states, and (c) be compatible with IPv6.

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