FYI: The Future of Public Folders

The Exchange Team has a great new post on the future of Public Folders in Exchange 12 and understanding how they are implemented. Be sure to read this post if you are thinking about moving to Exchange 12 and/or Outlook 2007, this article will provide you the facts for your public folder migration plans (or delay making plans all together).

...There are many custom applications that use Public Folders and while most will be supported there certain types of custom applications that require more than just the folder to work. For example, custom applications that use Exchange Workflow will have to be migrated for E12 because Workflow is not supported on E12...

...Also of note when planning your migration away from older Outlook clients is that they require public folders to work and that as long as you have pre Outlook 2007 clients connected to Exchange 12, you will need to have public folders enabled...

...The main focus of this article is to put your migration fears on hold, if not to rest, for Exchange 12 in that you will still have the Public Folder technology. Given that, the alternative technologies such as InfoPath, Sharepoint, and Windows Workflow Foundation are definitely worth looking into as they are exciting products and will be continue emphasized as a migration path for aging Exchange technologies...

Updated 1/22/2009 – Fixed a broken link.