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Alex Scoble

Microsoft ups maximum storage for standard Exchange Server 2003 in SP2

5 comments

IT TOPICS:Enterprise Software & Services, Management, Networking, Software

Amidst all of the hoopla over at Apple, Microsoft released news that will actually matter to the millions of users of Exchange.

Currently, if you own Exchange Server NT, 2000 or 2003 standard edition, you are limited to 16GB of storage on a single server. With today's server storage capacities, speeds of the internet, users requirements to be able to store vast quantities of email where they are easily and quickly retrievable and a general need to send ever larger files across the internet, the old 16GB limit just isn't enough.

We had an attorney here who had over 3GB of mail in their mailbox on the server. PSTs just didn't cut it as a 2GB or larger PST takes forever to access, even on a fast PC. It was cheaper and simpler for us to spend the extra $2300 or so for Exchange Enterprise 2003 than it would have been to ask the users to seriously prune their mailboxes.

So I find Microsoft's announcement to be a very welcome boon for the small to medium business that is running Exchange and looking for an upgrade. Well done, although it could probably be argued that this should have been done with the initial release of Exchange 2003. However, as the saying goes, "better Nate than lever".

Here's some links on the subject:

http://hellomate.typepad.com/exchange/2005/06/exchange_2003_s.html

http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2005/06/06/405933.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/gerod_serafin/archive/2005/06/06/405928.aspx

A blogger's (Paul) recap of Steve Ballmer's TechEd keynote speech where he talks about many things including the 16gb limit increase

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Exchange, GroupWise, Notes -

Submitted by Darin McGee on June 10, 2005 - 9:45 P.M.

Exchange, GroupWise, Notes - Have worked with all three in enterprise environments and they ALL have their flaws.

I have been in this industry for 25+ years and have never seen a piece of software on the same scope and size such as Exchange, GroupWise or Notes without bugs or trade offs in design and functionality.

It simply amazes me that some people still take sides with one particular piece of software or OS and try to make it fit in whatever environment it needs to fit because they refuse to open their minds to other products or designs.

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Hmm, I guess I should have

Submitted by Alex Scoble on June 9, 2005 - 12:50 P.M.

Hmm, I guess I should have made it clearer in my post. The current limit of 16GB will be lifted to 75GB with Exchange 2003 SP2.

By the way, Exchange IS the Cadillac of collaboration systems.

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Exchange is the Cadillac of

Submitted by Jeff on June 9, 2005 - 5:03 P.M.

Exchange is the Cadillac of collaboration systems? Now that's RICH. I guess Domino/Notes is the Mercedes-Benz and Novell is the Lexus.

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I would say that Lotus is

Submitted by Henning on June 10, 2005 - 1:00 A.M.

I would say that Lotus is like the Iveco truck and Novell is like the skoda (russian car)

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Uhh, "just" 16 GB??? That

Submitted by Jim Strohm on June 7, 2005 - 10:10 A.M.

Uhh, "just" 16 GB???

That previous limit is as farcical as Bill Gates' ill-fated statement "640K is all people will ever need."

Out here in the real world, real people USE the storage space in Exchange. A realistic minimum limit for storage access should be the maximum space addressable by the operating system.

Of course, Microsoft hasn't been particularly good about staying in touch with reality and the needs of real users.

I see this change as an improvement, but no amount of paint and body work is going to turn a Yugo into a Cadillac.

Microsoft needs to unload its Yugo mentality, because we can switch to a Cadillac any time we want. It's called ...

... Linux.

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