Wide area file services

Wide area file services (WAFS) products allow remote office users to access and share files globally at LAN speeds over the WAN. Distributed enterprises that deploy WAFS solutions are able to consolidate storage to corporate datacenters, eliminating the need to back up and manage data that previously resided in their remote offices. WAFS uses techniques such as SMB and MAPI protocol optimization, data compression, and sometimes storing recurrent data patterns in a local cache.