Public Folders not Dead Yet

Public folders it seems have had a reprieve. As most of you probably know public folders were being deemphasized in Exchange 2007 and the official line was that MS may not support public folders in the next Exchange release. It now seems that MS have had a change of heart and will continue to fully support public folders in the next release of Exchange and therefore they will be around for quite some time.

What does this mean for public folders. Well I still think that if you are in the position where you can afford both time and money to think about the future of your document storage in public folders consider this. Sharepoint is a good product. MS will continue to improve it and provide better features for Sharepoint where we may find that the tools and improvements for public folders may stay about the same. Those of us who used Exchange 2007 RTM noticed that public folder support was practically non-existent. Thankfully SP1 improved public folder support greatly.

I guess what I am trying to say is don’t get to comfortable with public folders. I am still fairly green when it comes to Sharepoint however I like what it can do and quite frankly wouldn’t use public folders for document storage in a new environment.

Further Information
Updated Exchange Public Folder Guidance
http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/03/31/448537.aspx