Work Folders for Remote Access, File Synchronization

Employees accessing company files through personal and remote devices introduce governance and IT security issues. Work Folders attempts to address these issues for Windows 8.1 devices with a new service in Windows Server 2012 R2 that allows users to securely synchronize files between one or more remote Windows 8.1 devices and the company’s on-premises file servers, without a virtual private network (VPN) connection. Work Folders allows companies to enforce file encryption and security policies on remote devices while retaining files on-premises and leveraging existing file server structures. Work Folders requires a network gateway and is only available on Windows 8.1 devices.

Web Access to Files

Work Folders is a new server role in Windows Server 2012 R2 that allows companies that prefer to control files with on-premises file servers to share files with remote users without additional infrastructure, such as SharePoint or VPN services. Work Folders appear to a user as server file shares, but the files are stored on the local device, as well as the on-premises server. (For a comparison of Work Folders and other Microsoft file synchronization technologies, see the chart “File Synchronization Technologies Compared“.)