Hiya, Its a really open question. It really depends on what you want to replicate(type of data) How the application works, that need the data. What type of storage your using.

As suggested above, it really depends on what would you like to replicate. If your question pertains to file servers across multiple sites then DFS would be a good option.Thanks, Santosh (MCTS W2K8 AD and SCCM) To Infinity and Beyond

DFS could be an option. However, for very robost replication services you may need to consider looking at 3rd party tools. For instance, Symantec has an enterprise class product called "Veritas Volume Replicator". There are alot of other tools...you'll need to do some additional research and try out their software. As others have mentioned so far, selecting the appropriate tool is going to depend on the data and apps that use the data. Visit anITKB.com, an IT Knowledge Base.

It Depends on your app/data that you want to replicate. if you are more specific then i can give a proper answer for your queryIf you found this post helpful, please "Vote as Helpful". If it answered your question, remember to "Mark as Answer". MCSE,MSCITP-EA

If you have a lot of data to move I would really get away from software based replication and look at hardware such as EMC or NetApp where you can let the device keep the data and ddupe problems to a minimal, escpecially if you have a geographicly diverse environment.:P Advice offered, If you need more help it is advised to seek the council and advice of paid professionals. The answer is always 42, or reboot.

Hi All, Just wanted to know the best method of data replication within multiple sites of the same company? The problem of using online servers is the read and write speeds are not as equal to hdd speeds. I wanted to know the best method of having the same data across multiple sites without the delay and lag of the same files being used and updated. Can a windows server help in this situation? If so how efficient would it be?

At the moment we got two sites which have data on a computer at each site. The total amount of data stored would be around 20gb but i am sure this would increase as time passes by. It would consists of office files such as word, excel, images, pdfs and so on. The problem we had with solutions like webdav are that it is too slow due to connectivity issues. Last night I was browsing and saw Office 365 and i dont think it would do the job since I feel its too limited. I would like to have the data stored in such a way that anyone can go to My Computer and access it from there without any lag or delay instead of using a website to access the files. I thought data replication would solve such issues since you would have data on each site and synchronously replicate the data to both sites. Having servers would be a bit more expensive way to go I know but I thought that was the way to go. Any suggestions would be great.

If my asumption is correct and your talking file shares only - then DFS is a viable option. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_File_System_(Microsoft)

If my asumption is correct and your talking file shares only - then DFS is a viable option. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_File_System_(Microsoft) Jesper, as you said I think the DFS with DFSN and FSR will be the way to go. Since we have two sites then we would need to have to have a server on each site and using the DFS option on each site we can share all the data between multiple sites. Where would be the best place to start with all of it, as I will have to implement this project.

If my asumption is correct and your talking file shares only - then DFS is a viable option. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_File_System_(Microsoft) Jesper, as you said I think the DFS with DFSN and FSR will be the way to go. Since we have two sites then we would need to have to have a server on each site and using the DFS option on each site we can share all the data between multiple sites. Where would be the best place to start with all of it, as I will have to implement this project. Begin with below... For Windows 2003 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc737358(WS.10).aspx DFS Step-by-Step Guide for Windows Server 2008 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732863(WS.10).aspx DFS Replication: What’s new in Windows Server™ 2008 R2 http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/archive/2009/01/19/dfs-replication-what-s-new-in-windows-server-2008-r2.aspx Thanks, Santosh (MCTS W2K8 AD and SCCM) “ To Infinity and Beyond… ”

Thanks for that Santosh. By the way I had two more questions about it. Just wanted to confirm that DFS would be a more stable and quicker than VPN would be? Also just wanted to know where would be the best book/video training be for having a crash course on windows server 2008?

obener, DFS is of course a stable technology, to use DFS you must have strong backbone network infrastructure and a stable AD environment. You must assess and plan DFS architecture as per your need, to know more follow the below links. http://www.petri.co.il/planning-dfs-architecture-part-one.htm http://www.petri.co.il/planning-dfs-architecture-part-two.htm http://www.petri.co.il/planning-dfs-architecture-part-three.htm As per my understanding, DFS and VPN are two different technologies; and there is no head to head comparison between them; both are used for two different purposes and their usage contexts are different. Check the article below to know more about VPN. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc739294(WS.10).aspx There are many sources from where you can get useful information on Windows Server 2008. Some of them have been given below. http://www.server2008training.com/ http://www.softwaretrainingtutorials.com/ms-windows-server-2008.php http://apex.vtc.com/windows-server-2008.php Windows Server 2008 Video: Install Distributed File System (DFS) http://www.davelawlor.com/server-2008-video-install-distributed-file-system Hope it helps.Thanks, Santosh (MCTS W2K8 AD and SCCM) To Infinity and Beyond