Hit PDC, WinHEC or any other tech event this month and Windows Server 2008 R2 is going to be a common topic of conversation. And the most common feature discussed in those conversations is likely to be Live Migration, since it's something on which we've received a ton of positive customer feedback. But while LM is on everyone's lips now, my favorite R2 feature is a bit of a sleeper. It's called DirectAccess, and it's got the potential to revolutionize remote access.

Ailing economy = tight budgets = folks looking to save money any way they can. Telecommuting, remote access, virtual meetings, it's all got cost savings stamped on it for everyone except the poor IT manager who needs to manage loads of third-party VPN clients, configure VPN concentrators and deploy fully managed VPN routers at every remote office and telecommuter's home. What if all that could go away? What if all you needed was a Windows Server 2008 R2 management console on one end and Windows 7 on the other? What if that combination automatically found the corporate network, authenticated and then accessed the user's resources no matter to what network the end-user PC connected? That's DirectAccess.