Archive file location

  • Thread starter Thread starter John
  • Start date Start date
J

John

Hi,

We encourage users to clean out their Outlook 2003 mailbox and archive older
messages they want to keep. This works fine, except in the case, as happened
today, where the local hard disk crashed and the archive folder was lost.

What are the pros and cons of setting the archive location to a server so
that the data can be regularly backed up?

Thanks,

John
 
More cons than pros in my opinion:

Pros:
1. Data is backed up and therefore can (normally) be restored from backup.
2. Data can be centrally managed.
3. IT team can watch for PSTs reaching the maximum size limits.

Cons:
1. Cost of backing up all users PST files - this could be a very large
amount of data.
2. The users are no longer responsible for their data, the responsibility is
shifted to the IT team.
3. If data is lost and cannot be recovered, the IT team become responsible
(added risk).
4. Increased traffic across your network as each Outlook client accesses the
PST on a central file server.
5. Increased workload on file server.
6. Laptop users cannot view their archived email unless they are in the
office (or using VPN).

Hope this helps.
 
And last but not least, MS doesnt support the use of a pst over a network,
as this can lead to corruption of the pst. Thereby cancelling any advantage.
 
Possible solution:

Give your users the facility to burn their own PSTs to a CD every now and
then.

Or perhaps a 1GB USB storage device?
 
Thank you for all comments.

John

Andrew Ogden said:
Possible solution:

Give your users the facility to burn their own PSTs to a CD every now and
then.

Or perhaps a 1GB USB storage device?
Click to expand...
 
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