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F5 Networks (News - Alert), a provider of Application Delivery Networking, or “AND,” solutions, announced their new Application Ready Solutions for Microsoft (News - Alert) Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. 

The new F5 solutions offer support for Microsoft’s recently released DirectAccess and BranchCache technologies, said F5 officials. DirectAccess and BranchCache are two important new features of the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems.

Microsoft DirectAccess provides easier remote access to corporate resources. Featuring comprehensive management capabilities and integrated security enforcement, the solution allows IT departments to manage remote access at a lower cost. 

The F5 solution for DirectAccess enables enterprise customers to scale their deployments and enjoy the same benefits of other ADC (News - Alert)-optimized applications. 

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager, an application delivery networking system from F5, can proxy DirectAccess connections to ensure that users have quick access to the best-performing server resources, improving the performance and scalability of DirectAccess across multiple servers, F5 officials said.

As a part of the Application Ready Solution for Windows Server 2008 R2, F5’s support for BranchCache increases server capacity by offloading intensive computations used to alias web content requests from Windows 7 clients at branch locations, company officials said. 

The solution also functions as a transition technology to bring the benefits of BranchCache to all Windows 7 client users where Web servers have not yet been upgraded to Windows Server 2008 R2. 

For servers not yet running Windows 2008 R2, the F5 solution provides the infrastructure visibility and intelligence necessary for those servers to participate in a BranchCache solution where Windows 7 clients are deployed, significantly reducing bandwidth consumption, company sources said.

“Microsoft’s DirectAccess and BranchCache technologies highlight the business value of Windows 7 client and Windows Server 2008 R2 working together to provide new, transformational features that increase user productivity,” Mike Schutz, director, Windows Server Marketing at Microsoft, said.

Both DirectAccess and BranchCache will enable anytime access to mobile workers, increasing business productivity while decreasing the cost of delivering this access in a secure, manageable way, Schutz added. “F5’s Application Ready Solutions amplify this value for end-users and corporate IT departments by providing tested, validated solutions to streamline application deployments.”

F5 Networks had recently announced Application Ready Solutions for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. These solutions enable customers to fully leverage the advanced messaging functionality in Exchange 2010.

With the latest Application Ready Solutions for Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, F5 Solutions further aims at improving scalability and performance of business-critical applications from Microsoft, company officials said. 

F5 Application Ready Solutions help to increase the capacity of Windows servers by offloading CPU-intensive operations, and ensure that F5 Application Delivery Controllers, or “ADCs,” are optimized for Microsoft environments, company officials said.

“Application delivery and optimization for remote users is becoming a more common concern for IT departments,” Calvin Rowland, vice president of Application Partner Programs at F5, said. “In order to ensure the productivity and connection of these employees, companies need to deploy applications and technologies to enable remote access just as they enable onsite access.”

Rowland further said that F5 Application Ready Solutions provide customers with increased worker productivity, greater ROI for IT departments, increased confidence of solution interoperability, and enhanced scalability for faster, easier technology deployments.