diff --git a/README.asciidoc b/README.asciidoc
index 2c8d8233..1e311219 100644
--- a/README.asciidoc
+++ b/README.asciidoc
@@ -90,6 +90,18 @@ CLCACHE_OBJECT_CACHE_TIMEOUT_MS::
     used by the clcache script. You may override this variable if you are
     getting ObjectCacheLockExceptions with return code 258 (which is the
     WAIT_TIMEOUT return code).
+CLCACHE_LOCKFILE::
+    Enables lockfile based access management to the cache. If this variable is set,
+    clcache will use a lockfile to ensure that only one process can access the
+    cache and statistics at a time.
+    The default of clcache is to use a windows kernel mutex to manage concurrent
+    access to the cache which only works for processes running on the same host.
+    If the cache is shared between different hosts this lockfile based access
+    management can be used.
+    The exact requirements for lockfiles to work are not available yet, but
+    they work localy on at least Windows 7 with NTFS and for network shares with
+    SMB 2.1 (comes with Windows 7).
+
 
 How clcache works
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/clcache.py b/clcache.py
index 4187a030..a2067374 100644
--- a/clcache.py
+++ b/clcache.py
@@ -51,6 +51,9 @@
 import sys
 import multiprocessing
 import re
+import time
+import msvcrt
+import random
 
 VERSION = "3.0.3-dev"
 
@@ -84,10 +87,9 @@ def __str__(self):
         return repr(self.message)
 
 
-class ObjectCacheLock:
+class ObjectCacheLockMutex:
     """ Implements a lock for the object cache which
     can be used in 'with' statements. """
-    INFINITE = 0xFFFFFFFF
 
     def __init__(self, mutexName, timeoutMs):
         mutexName = 'Local\\' + mutexName
@@ -126,6 +128,72 @@ def release(self):
         self._acquired = False
 
 
+class ObjectCacheLockFile:
+    """ Implements a lock file lock for the object cache which
+    can be used in 'with' statements.
+    Inspired by
+    https://github.com/harlowja/fasteners
+    https://github.com/benediktschmitt/py-filelock"""
+
+    def __init__(self, lockfileName, timeoutMs):
+        self._lockfileName = lockfileName
+        self._lockfile = None
+
+        if timeoutMs < 0:
+            raise ObjectCacheLockException("Timeout needs to be a positive value")
+        else:
+            self._timeoutMs = timeoutMs
+
+    def __enter__(self):
+        self.acquire()
+
+    def __exit__(self, typ, value, traceback):
+        self.release()
+
+    def __del__(self):
+        self.release()
+
+    def _acquire(self):
+        try:
+            lockfile = open(self._lockfileName, 'a')
+        except OSError:
+            return
+
+        try:
+            msvcrt.locking(lockfile.fileno(), msvcrt.LK_NBLCK, 1)
+        except (IOError, OSError):
+            lockfile.close()
+        else:
+            self._lockfile = lockfile
+
+    def _release(self):
+        lockfile = self._lockfile
+        self._lockfile = None
+        msvcrt.locking(lockfile.fileno(), msvcrt.LK_UNLCK, 1)
+        lockfile.close()
+
+    def is_locked(self):
+        return self._lockfile is not None
+
+    def acquire(self):
+        startTime = time.time()
+        while True:
+            if not self.is_locked():
+                self._acquire()
+
+            if self.is_locked():
+                break
+            elif time.time() - startTime > self._timeoutMs/1000:
+                raise ObjectCacheLockException("Timeout waiting for file lock")
+            else:
+                pollDelay = random.uniform(0.1, 1.0)
+                time.sleep(pollDelay)
+
+    def release(self):
+        if self.is_locked():
+            self._release()
+
+
 class ObjectCache:
     def __init__(self):
         try:
@@ -142,7 +210,12 @@ def __init__(self):
             os.makedirs(self.objectsDir)
         lockName = self.cacheDirectory().replace(':', '-').replace('\\', '-')
         timeout_ms = int(os.environ.get('CLCACHE_OBJECT_CACHE_TIMEOUT_MS', 10 * 1000))
-        self.lock = ObjectCacheLock(lockName, timeout_ms)
+
+        if "CLCACHE_LOCKFILE" in os.environ:
+            lockfileName = os.path.join(self.cacheDirectory(), "cache.lock")
+            self.lock = ObjectCacheLockFile(lockfileName, timeout_ms)
+        else:
+            self.lock = ObjectCacheLockMutex(lockName, timeout_ms)
 
     def cacheDirectory(self):
         return self.dir