I wanted to get everyone's input on the following scenario that I ran into recently and thought it was there were some major problems, but I wanted to see what everyone else thought. A colluge of mine has a client that is a small law firm with about 15 people max. They want to migrate from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008. We sat down and took a look at what had to be moved over. The firm uses a program called Trial Works that they use to manage all their cases, so obviously this program pretty much runs the entire firm. Based on what the users are saying and some of the issues we have run into, and without doing direct research ourselves (as of yet) it looks like TrialWorks has direct access to creating public folders within exchange. So in the Public Store, there are no less than 1000 public calendars. 1 for each client for all their trial dates, appointments, etc. I would thing that a program having direct access to create public folders like that would be a big no no. Especially 1000+! Is the archtecutre of Public Folders meant to handle that many??? I personally think that the procedure of scheduling clients needs to be re thought as this seems insanely cumbersome, and they are headed for disaster.

1000 public folders? That is nothing. I am personally aware of three environments with over 10,000 of them. The store technology is the same as mailbox data - each Outlook account will have at least 10 folders in it, and a server with 1000 users on it is not unusual. Therefore nothing you have said is unreasonable in my eyes - although others may have other opinions. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources

On Mon, 20 Dec 2010 21:11:07 +0000, Sembee wrote: >1000 public folders? > >That is nothing. I am personally aware of three environments with over 10,000 of them. I know you're not using me as an example, but you're right. We have more than 10K public folders. The only thing I'd be concerned about is whether that application depends on the MTA. A lot of Exchange 2003 app still do. --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

The only thing I'd be concerned about is whether that application depends on the MTA. A lot of Exchange 2003 app still do. That is a product design issue, not an issue with Exchange. The OP should check with the software vendor if they support public folders on the later versions of Exchange. Simon.Simon Butler, Exchange MVP Blog | Exchange Resources

On Mon, 20 Dec 2010 22:44:47 +0000, Sembee wrote: > The only thing I'd be concerned about is whether that application depends on the MTA. A lot of Exchange 2003 app still do. > > > >That is a product design issue, not an issue with Exchange. The OP should check with the software vendor if they support public folders on the later versions of Exchange. Agreed. But it's still something that needs to be addressed, or at least investigated, before they begin moving stuff. --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

Thank you for all the help. We had defnitely planned on talking to the vendor of the product to verify that it will work with Exchange 2007. I had no idea that people had used Public folders the way they do. I definitely learned something! Thanks everyone!

Additional resources: “Best Practices” section in Understanding Public FoldersPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

On Tue, 21 Dec 2010 12:24:04 +0000, PHE Admin wrote: >I had no idea that people had used Public folders the way they do. I definitely learned something! Public folders are the "elephant graveyard" for data. It's the place they go to die. Or maybe it's the "roach motel" where the data check in but never check out. --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

On Mon, 20 Dec 2010 21:11:07 +0000, Sembee wrote: >1000 public folders? > >That is nothing. I am personally aware of three environments with over 10,000 of them. I know you're not using me as an example, but you're right. We have more than 10K public folders. The only thing I'd be concerned about is whether that application depends on the MTA. A lot of Exchange 2003 app still do. --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP Only 10,000 folders? How cute! :P

What does the future of Public Folders hold? I know with 2007 Microsoft was trying to push to use Sharepoint instead of Public Folders and that Exchange 2010 wasn't going to have Public Folders but does. Do they plan on getting rid of them at some point or has microsoft accepted them as something everyone uses and plans on keeping.

On Mon, 27 Dec 2010 15:30:03 +0000, PHE Admin wrote: >What does the future of Public Folders hold? I know with 2007 Microsoft was trying to push to use Sharepoint instead of Public Folders and that Exchange 2010 wasn't going to have Public Folders but does. Do they plan on getting rid of them at some point or has microsoft accepted them as something everyone uses and plans on keeping. I think the answer is that they will get rid of them . . . eventually. --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP