Is there any way to speed Outlook up without archiving the exchange account?

[gwilks98]

We have some users with LARGE mailboxes due to both size of emails and number of emails. They are complaining of slowness all the way to the top, but everyone's insistent on keeping their damn emails for years.

We've archived the accounts to a certain extent, but even then, emails less than 6 months old that don't get archived are enough for some users to still experience productivity loss.

I'm at a loss. The CFO is telling me she can't delete any more - she *has* to have this history. I'm being told to find a solution. God help me, anyone have any ideas on how to help speed her outlook up? Are there any programs designed to give users a way to catalog their historical email so they don't have to use Outlook for it?

[Paymaster]

By "mailbox size", you mean the size of the inbox?
By "archiving", you mean moving things to a personal folder (pst file)?

Am I also to believe that people have a big problem moving files from their "inbox" to a "personal folder"?

Just trying to make sure that we are clear on the problem... I am just an outlook user, not an IT guy, but I have several years of history neatly tucked away into personal folders w/o any slowdown...

[Jeffbx]

Yeah, we're in the same boat. What size organization are you? How many mailboxes? What version of Exchange are you on?

Here are my generic suggestions:

1) Price out a new server & a fast NAS or SAN. Present the bill to the CFO & let her know that's what the solution will cost. That usually gives them a pretty fast reality check.

2) Implement a strict mailbox size limit (like say, 250MB). Get the support of the CEO or CIO to roll it out.

3) Look for 3rd party archival solutions. There are many out there, and most of them are for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. They're also pretty expensive.

http://redmondmag.com/features/article.asp?EditorialsID=472

[gwilks98]

Yeah, we're in the same boat. What size organization are you? How many mailboxes? What version of Exchange are you on?

Here are my generic suggestions:

1) Price out a new server & a fast NAS or SAN. Present the bill to the CFO & let her know that's what the solution will cost. That usually gives them a pretty fast reality check.

2) Implement a strict mailbox size limit (like say, 250MB). Get the support of the CEO or CIO to roll it out.

3) Look for 3rd party archival solutions. There are many out there, and most of them are for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. They're also pretty expensive.

http://redmondmag.com/features/article.asp?EditorialsID=472

I'm working in a retail company. 200 people at the main office with plenty of field users and 600 accounts for the stores. I'm not sure how far off that number is to the total mailbox size. I'm not quite in my new position yet. See here:
http://www.gotapex.com/suckage-not-so-suckage/142337-suckage-promotion.html

I'm not the administrator of the system, but I'm trying to make some new friends by improving the sinking ship we're in.

Paymaster, I'm not referring to PSTs. Those are dangerous (losable, corruptable, deletable).

We've got a archiving solution in place right now (evault) but no one wants to take the extra second to use the search tool to find old mail.

We've got extremely large mailbox limits, but the directors and chiefs have no limit. (The lack of support from upper management is killing me.)

We've got a few mailboxes in the 10 - 20 gig range.

I could be wrong, but I think the disconnect is that we have a $$$ SAN and archiving solution in place, and the system still isn't fast enough. The sheer volume of data that has to go over the network to cache their folders is enough to hinder productivity.

I'm not sure what kind of proposals have crossed the CFO's desk, but I'm willing to give it another shot.

I just wanted to see if anyone else has done this kind of research before...and if anyone had any luck.

[Jeffbx]

Yeah, there are MANY solutions out there and they are all very expensive, but if the execs want to keep doing business like they are today, it's going to cost them.

We got lucky at my company - the CIO is going to set a strict mailbox size, and everyone will be slapped with a big reality check. My boss has a 67GB mailbox, and we've been trying to get him to clean it up for years. Now he won't have a choice, and the best part is that I don't have any say about it. If he wants to argue the point, he has to go to HIS superiors.

It's CRUCIAL that you get support from the C level for a project like this. Do you guys have a CIO? If not, who does the tech team report up to? Your best bet is to bring in your SAN & your archiving vendors, tell them your pain, and ask them to come up with a solution to speed up access. I can pretty much guarantee that it'll be crazy expensive. Take that proposal to your boss & then go up the line to the C level. Let them know that there are 3 options:

1) Everything stays as it is, access will be slow & people will complain. Access will continue to slow down as mailbox sizes grow. Throw in some cost estimates for expanding the storage periodically to accomodate the growth in data.
2) You spend $xxx,xxx to implement a new, faster system with more capacity to accomodate the unlimited storage that has been granted to the execs.
3) You change the mail policy, implement a mailbox limit, force everyone to clean up, and no money is spent and performance improves.

All you have to do is give them easy choices to make & show them how much each one costs. Be careful, though - your 'reward' for doing this may well be that you're the one who gets to run the project for whatever is chosen.

Do you have dedicated mail admins on the team? If so, be sure you're working with them on this. Don't be stepping on anyone's toes!

[gwilks98]

Thanks Jeff.



Do you have dedicated mail admins on the team? If so, be sure you're working with them on this. Don't be stepping on anyone's toes!

I never do anything alone here at this company. Besides, I'm trying to make nice with the admins, so I'd be happy to let them know I'm willing to help them out.