I’m about to start work on a Windows 2008 R2 / Windows 7 Direct Access project and while gathering some resources (I played with it in the lab last fall) I noticed the Step by Step guide has been updated to version 1.2 which was published on June 18th 2010. It’s a great kick start for demoing Direct Access in a lab for management. Grab it here. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/confirmation.aspx?familyId=8d47ed5f-d217-4d84-b698-f39360d82fac&displayLang=en. If you’re hooked and need more info, check out the Direct Access pages on TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/network/dd420463.aspx

Some people complain Direct Access is (overly) complicated. Well, it’s not a simple wizard you can run or some SOHO NAT device that you plug in, but come on people. We’re IT Pro’s. We did and do more complicated stuff than that. As a matter of fact I remember some feedback John Craddock got last year at Tech Ed Europe (2009). Some consultancy firm employees told him he should not make it look that easy. Organizations need consultancy to get it right. Really? Some will, some won’t. I have nothing against consulting, when done right and for the right reasons. I even consult myself from time to time with partners who need a helping hand. But take note that the world does run on people, and consultants are people (really!). What they can learn,  you can learn. Just put in the effort. So go have fun setting up Direct Access and giving your road warriors and IT Pro’s some bidirectional and transparent connectivity to company resources. To me Direct Access was one of the big selling points for Windows 7 / Windows 2008 R2. Better together indeed 🙂