Learn what branch cache is. Learn what are its two modes and their features. The two modes are mutually exclusive of one another.

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In this tutorial, we will teach you what is branch cache? We will provide an overview of branch cache. What it is, what are its modes and what advantages does it bring to a user.

Step 1 -- Overview of branch cache

So what is branch cache? Branch Cache is a business feature introduced in Windows 7 and is ideal for businesses that have multiple branches or operational units. What Branch Cache does is that it improves application response time and reduces the WAN traffic side by side.

Step 2 -- Distributed Cache Mode

WAN traffic is reduced when the computers are configured to a distributed cache mode. This allows the cache files to be distributed amongst the different user computers on the branch office network. The best part is that no additional services or infrastructure are required to make all of this happen; computers running on Windows 7 are suitable for the task.

Step 3 -- Hosted Cache Mode

In a hosted cache mode, cached content is maintained on a single computer with the help of Windows Server 2008 R2. So how does this work? A user computer requests the host for a specific file. After the request has been received, the host server transmits the file to the user computer.

Step 4 -- Mutually exclusive modes

These were the two branch cache modes a user can work with. Remember, both these branch cache modes are mutually exclusive that is only a single cache mode can be used at one time.