How to allow multiple users access to the same files over a WAN

What type of files are these? If they are are Office files from version 2007 and later then they have this capability built into them. Let me know what type of files they are and we can sort it out.

are the users modifying these files or reading them only?  also, how critical is it for the file data to be fresh (e.g. is it a problem if the data is 15 or so minutes old?)

if the end users only require read access and semi-stale data is tolerable, why not consider file replication services?

DFS Replication services can work well, but it doesn't prevent the same file from being edited by multiple users in multiple locations. In such a case, the version that gets saved last will get replicated, overwriting all the other changes. There will be a conflicts folder where you can recover the other versions, but everything would have to be manually merged back into a single file. It sounds like from what the author describes that there needs to be a centralized locking mechanism to prevent concurrent edits.

hrm, good point...  I overlooked the open and edit detail in the original post.

pmarquardt: All the files are currently office 2003. Every user in the office is using Office 2003. We are going to be upgrading to Office 2010 in the coming months.

kevinhsieh: We are currently using windows 2003 terminal servers. We are considering upgrading to 2008 R2. Using remote applications sounds interesting. Terminal servers is currently working for us but one reason I want to see if their is another solution is because their are several instances where the terminal server is not suitable and the user must minimize it to use the local computer. This confuses some. I would like a way to lower the confusion and have everything on either the local computer or the terminal server. Right now though, the remote applications seems like the best. The only issue I run into with that is what if a user has a publisher file that is large for example. That won't perform well in the TS. Maybe when I upgrade the TS I can add much more memory and try t allocate 500-1000MB of RAM per user. Maybe this will address this issue? Is TS2008 any better at displaying images that may be used in a publisher file or displaying PDF files? The slowness of a PDF and image file has always been a complaint about users.

We were using DFS originally when I started working here and it w as a mess. Because it would not prompt users if someone has a file open, we were losing files left and right. We ended up having to get out of that situation and installed the terminal servers.

Thanks to everybody for all the comments!

Justin

I also forgot to mention that we were looking at Branch Cache as well. The problem with this though is that all 100 computers are running XP. To upgrade would be very expensive.

Thanks,

Justin

Thanks for the input.

I will look at these solutions, not sure if we can spend as much as they will both cost though.

Is their anything else within windows that we could utilize? Even if we did use Branch Cache, would it solve the problem of multiple people editing the file at the same time?

Justin

I am interested to see if the WAN optimization can work. So you use it? Can you tell me why you decided to use it and what areas it has specifically helped?

If we used this, we would go back to not using TS and having each user work on their local computer which means they would have to access files over the WAN. Would a WAN optimizer make a difference when they are opening a 30MB publisher file and other large files? I would still imagine they are going to have to wait a few minutes before the file actually downloads and opens.

We are also interested in video conferencing, would it be able to supplement bandwidth for that user?

Thanks,

Justin