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Windows 8 - Optimized for Businesses Too!

By Wong Chung Wee - 8 Nov 2012

Speeding Up the Network with BranchCache

Speeding Up the Network with BranchCache

BranchCache is a wide area network (WAN) bandwidth optimization technology that is included in some editions of the Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 operating systems, To optimize WAN bandwidth when users access content on remote servers, BranchCache copies content from your main office or hosted cloud content servers and caches those digital content at branch office locations, allowing client computers at branch offices to access the content locally rather than over the WAN. At branch offices, content is stored either on servers that are configured to host the cache. Client computers that are operating on Windows 8 or Windows 7 can be configured to host the cache, in-lieu of local branch office servers. After a client computer requests and receives content from the main office and the content is cached at the branch office, other computers at the same branch office can obtain the content locally, reducing the need to access the content servers over the WAN link.

In this illustration, BranchCache is deployed in both distributed cache and hosted cache modes.

The meta data of the content files consists of hashes that are calculated using chunks of the original content, and are extremely small in file size. Client computers then use the meta data to locate the content from a cache in the branch office, regardless of its host that may be another client computer or on a branch office server. Client computers and servers also use content information to secure cached content so that it cannot be accessed by unauthorized users. BranchCache increases end user productivity by improving content query response times for clients and servers in branch offices, and can also help improve network performance by reducing traffic over WAN links.

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