Rational Synergy 7.1 introduces significant performance improvements for working on a central server over a WAN. It includes a new WAN client and server architecture that communicates using HTTP/HTTPS and provides up to 20x faster performance. Additional enhancements include usability improvements, improved error reporting, support for files larger than 2GB, and a new archiver. The release aims to enable distributed teams to work globally on a single repository with reduced administration costs.